February 23, 2012

Read online to donate a new book to a child in need

Here's a fun & free way to read a picture book online with your kids and help another child receive a new book. For every book you read on their website, The We Give Books organization, part of the Pearson Foundation, will donate one new book to children in need around the world.

"We Give Books is a free website that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don't have them, simply by reading online."
Simply go to wegivebooks.org and choose the charity you want to read for and then pick the books that you want to read. For every book you read online, they will donate a book on your behalf to that charity. As soon as you finish the book, click on the button "Give a Book." It's very easy. Then once a month, they send the new books out to the charities. To date, 839,577 books have been donated.

You can re-read your favorite books or try something new every time. It's free, and they offer picture books from Penguin and DK for children up to around the age of 10 years old, including non-fiction animal books.

Right now their charities include World Vision, Tinga Tinga Tales Early Childhood Development Programme (books for children in Africa), and Support My School India (building libraries in over 100 rural schools in India).

You can also follow We Give Books on Twitter and Facebook to read online there. And look---there's a button on the right side of this blog too!

This is not only something that can be read at home, but would work great in a classroom on the smart board or in a library storytime!