Looking for volunteer opportunities?

Behind the Book is seeking volunteers to design and format new student books!

Each book takes about 15 hours of time for a designer, spread over two or three weeks. We’re nearing the end of the school year, so in order to leave sufficient time for printing we are looking for someone to start right away.

This opportunity is perfect for someone who has a passion for education and literacy, but also an eye for design and skill with computers. While the volunteer can work from home, it is preferable that he/she live in or very near New York City.

The volunteer will need to be proficient in InDesign. Samples of past work are a plus.

You can check out examples of our student books here.

Volunteers will also be invited to attend the Book Celebration Party for the class whose book they design.  You can read more about past parties here.

Contact Ellen@behindthebook.org if you are interested in this position. Preference will be given to candidates who can show examples of past design work.

Thank you to Caring Hands!

Our annual newsletter has just arrived from the printer, and it looks fabulous!

We would first like to take a moment to thank Caring Hands – an initiative of healthcare advertising agency Harrison and Star LLC – for their incredibly generosity; for the third year running they have sponsored the printing of the newsletter and we are so grateful for their continued support. Thank you Caring Hands!

If you are not on our mailing list, but would like to receive the newsletter, please complete the following form.

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Coming Soon: Reading Recomendations from BtB Authors

Access to literature is a fundamental part of creating readers for life and, in that spirit, we donate hundreds of books each year to our partner schools. Most of those books go directly to the students in our programs, and we usually donate an additional 5-10 books to the classroom or school’s library. But at the Community Health Academy of the Heights (CHAH), we didn’t stop there.

CHAH was located, at the time, in an overcrowded building on 182nd Street, and it had no library at all. So we took it upon ourselves to make sure these students had access to free books and outfitted CHAH with their own mobile library cart. It was a hit! As Paul Griffin recounted at our 10th anniversary fundraiser, it was so popular that books were disappearing from the shelves.

Since the inception of the mobile library two years ago, the school has moved to a new building, the cart has a permanent home, and so we’re donating over 150 more new books to celebrate.  We started with all the books by BtB authors currently running programs in the school: Matt de la Pena, Paul Griffin, and Patty McCormick. Then we asked the authors, “What books inspired you?” and combined those with the ones that had inspired us over the years in our programs. The final result is a treasure trove of great books, from the classics to recently published teen-lit gems, and we want to share them with you.

Check out our blog all this week for recommendations from the CHAH library and celebrate new books with us!

Volunteer with Behind the Book

We’re rolling out a new feature on our blog today: volunteer opportunities! Click on the “Volunteer Opportunities” link to your left for a comprehensive list of dates for our upcoming programs.

Why volunteer with Behind the Book? We’ll let some of our seasoned volunteers do the talking:

“Thank you for the opportunity to spend a really rewarding hour with those lovely students. I was paired with Mohamed who told me right away, “I don’t think I can do this.” But we persevered, and at the end of the hour, Mohamed had written his OWN (short!) biography of Michael Jordan.

This little story is just one of the many reasons I am so proud to support the great work Behind the Book does, and so grateful for the chance to be a part of it for a day. ” – Casey Cornelius

Casey volunteered in a 3rd grade program where students learned to write biographies with author Andrea Pinkney (they also went on an awesome field trip). Read more about our volunteer program here and be sure to check out the upcoming dates!

Announcing BtB Mother’s Day Cards

Mother’s Day is still a month off, but we’re already gearing up to celebrate the women we love.

Remember when your mom read you a story before she tucked you in at night? This Mother’s Day, honor that tradition by giving the gift of literacy to a child in need. It’s a gift that doesn’t wilt, break, fade, or go out of style; a gift that only appreciates in value. It may be as small as a single book or as large as an entire library but, no matter what its size, its worth is beyond measure.

Your socially conscious gift includes a beautiful, printable card commemorating your donation in the name of your loved one. For more info, visit Mother’s Day Cards