Support Teen Literature Day, TBD, and more

Celebrate the first national Poem In Your Pocket Day today, April 17. The idea is simple: choose a poem during National Poetry Month to carry and share with friends, co-workers, family, even strangers on April 17. Get ideas for creating your own Poem In Your Pocket Day event, and or browse for the perfect pocket poem.

Today is also Support Teen Literature Day. Readergirlz and YALSA have organized Operation TBD (Teen Book Drop): a massive, coordinated release of 10,000 publisher-donated YA books into the top pediatric hospitals across the country. You can celebrate Support Teen Lit Day, too. Start by downloading a readergirlz/YALSA bookplate for Operation TBD (Teen Book Drop) that you’ll find at the readergirlz Web site along with booklists and bookmarks.

Then drop a Book! Leave one copy of a YA book on April 17th in a teen gathering spot in your community. Place it where the book will be found, taken, and read (i.e. a coffee shop, the park, a community center, a bus stop.) And make sure you've placed an Operation TBD bookplate inside. Celebrate at the TBD Post Op Party: Party with readergirlz and YA authors on their online two-hour book bash hosted at the readergirlz MySpace forum, on April 17th from 6-8pm PDT / 9-11pm EDT. Win books and prizes, chat with other book lovers, and celebrate literacy.

Final tidbit: Readergirlz selected Kelly Bingham's book Shark Girl to celebrate Operation TBD and National Poetry Month. Her novel in verse chronicles a girl's life after a shark attack and her loss of an arm. Readergirlz will host a LIVE chat with Kelly (the author) on April 24th, at 6:00 p.m. PDT / 9:00 p.m. EDT.

More FYI from the press release:
This unprecedented teen literacy program, coined “Operation TBD”, will put free books—altogether valued at more than $175,000—donated by 20 book publishers into the hands of many of the teens most in need of solace, entertainment and a sense of personal accomplishment. After all, long-term hospital stays can be difficult on many levels—for teenagers and their families.

Justina Chen Headley, co-founder of readergirlz and award-winning novelist, wanted to find a way to support teen patients going through such difficulties through a massive book drop. “While touring my local children’s hospital to research my novel, Girl Overboard, I couldn’t help noticing that teen patients didn’t seem to have the comfort objects that the little ones did,” she said. “As an author, I knew that YA books—books with exceptional characters and fabulous stories—could provide teen patients with some of the escape and inspiration they needed. And I knew that readergirlz and YALSA were just the groups to spearhead a teen literacy program of this magnitude.


ALSO: Wish me luck with my 4th annual TLA Poetry Round Up today. I'll let you know how it goes...


Picture credit: (http://www.readergirlz.com/rockthedrop.jpg).