50 and Counting… Holiday Book Drive Deemed a Success

by Kay Hechler

Our kids love to read!! This is a wonderful reality in our community, and we can thank the City of Gaithersburg; Ms. Stephanie Brant, principal of the Gaithersburg Elementary School and the Gaithersburg Book Festival for helping to make it so!

This past 2015 holiday season, I once again had the pleasure of working with Stephanie and her media specialist, Jennifer Nicholson, to put together a fun and varied list of titles featured in our holiday book drive. This year’s list included classic favorites such as Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” and award-winning titles such as Rebecca Stead’s “When You Reach Me” – titles that span the different elementary age ranges and reading levels.

What a wonderful group of books we collected… more than 50 gorgeous, brand new copies! Some folks dropped off books at the Kentlands Hand and Stone. Others paid for copies at the spa and Hand and Stone then ordered the titles through Politics and Prose Bookstore, another fabulous partner in our efforts to make books available to our kids.

I cannot wait to deliver the books to Stephanie, who will get them into the community. I am grateful and inspired by the many generous people who donated. I have enjoyed speaking with all of you about books, kids, literacy and publishing, and I look forward to many more conversations with you!