Read All About It!

Open Books loves International Paper and is currently planning some outreach to its Chicagoland corporate offices — do you work in one of these offices? Have a neighbor who does? Did you interview there three months ago and turn down their job in a polite and respectful way that would have them delighted to hear from you (and Open Books!) again?

If you or someone you know works at International Paper, let me know: dani@open-books.org.

Today we enjoyed a different kind of field trip in the Open Books office! We were excited to work with a dozen high school students from the Building with Books organization.

These talented young leaders from the South and West sides of Chicago spent some time learning about the literacy mission and Open Books programs, then headed out into (warm but beautiful) summer sun to post our fliers at colleges around the Water Tower and Loop areas. The students’ street team efforts will help us find volunteers to staff our rapidly growing Open Books Buddies and Creative Writing Field Trip programs for fall.

Thank you, student leaders, for your day of service with Open Books! We hope you were as inspired by the college visits as we were by your visit to our office.

BwB’s leader Andre Darey explained that today’s group came from a “yearlong leadership program which takes uninvolved students with leadership potential and enrolls them in BwB’s core activities (community service, sponsorship, global education), an intensive 1-week service learning trip (helping non-profit agencies), and professional development workshops (job-skills training). The students also receive adult mentoring with guidance through goal setting/planning (Fall College Prep and Tour) and a 4-week internship (summer placement) all within a peer/team environment.”

How cool is that?! I love that BwB empowers teenagers by turning them into active participants in their local community. And if you check out the Building with Books web site, you’ll see that they take teens abroad to build schools, too! Wow!

Some of the students seemed excited to become Open Books volunteers on their own, and I’m looking forward to setting up an ongoing partnership with BwB. Keep an eye out for this awesome organization and new friend of Open Books! – Erin

In the May 24th edition of the RedEye, there was an article about a new service called Paperspine (paperspine.com) that sends books right to your door. For the voracious reader, book buying can become an expensive habit. But with this new site, you pay a monthly fee for books to be sent to your house. Once you’re done reading, you drop the books in the mail and a new one comes. With more than 200k titles to choose from, this new Washington-based business is sure to be a helpful tool for book lovers. Similar to Netflix, there are different plans to choose from, all based on the number of books a customer likes to have on hand at a time.

Although this concept sounds exactly like a mail order library, those who don’t have the time to check out books themselves might not mind paying the monthly fee. However, there is something to be said about perusing your local bookstore or library. Many of us that enjoy reading enough to become customers of this service also typically treasure the bookstore/library experience. Said experience is a great way to randomly stumble upon other titles you might not have found otherwise. There are obvious pros and cons, and with the publishing business in its current state this is definitely a creative direction to take.  As with Kindle, only time will tell if this innovative idea really makes an impact on the book industry.

Pitchfork was so great for Open Books, I’m not sure I can muster complete sentences about it. So let’s try a list — I love lists! — and photos. (All the pics are on our Flickr page.)

Open Books first-ever volunteering and tabling effort at Pitchfork Music Festival included these illustrious moments and memories:

• signing up more than 100 new members (woohoo!),

• playing Twister with friends, a toddler, a human pencil, and a dog (the dog won!),

• meeting educators from around Chicago and music and book lovers from all over the country,
• any chance to wear the pencil costume!

• indulging our artistic sides by making foil accessories for ourselves and new volunteers,

• dancing to Public Enemy with our froggy friend,

• almost but not quite jumping in the mud,

BEST OF ALL, fabulous Open Books volunteers got in free to the fest for working a half-day shift, and Pitchfork gave us $1,500 for literacy programs in exchange. Thanks to EVERYONE who helped create a wonderful weekend of music, games, and getting the word out — about the literacy cause and about how fun and rewarding volunteering with Open Books can be. Have a great week! – Erin

P.S. – Open Books staff and friends, who were your favorite bands of Pitchfork or your favorite characters spotted passing our table? I’m curious.

The Open Books team had a blast at our info table last night at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park. When we weren’t talking literacy with super CPS teachers, cool new volunteers, and excited visitors from Ann Arbor and Detroit who claimed first dibs on any Michigan franchises of Open Books (nice!), we were discussing our favorite books AND ultimate sandwiches, learning math-based tips for winning big should we ever get whooshed back in time to be contestants on Let’s Make a Deal, and last but not least, busting into a Public Enemy-soundtracked dance off, featuring Lane in the pencil costume and Christine in cahoots with Buster the frog. (I promise pics on Monday.)

Festival volunteers, we hope you’re having fun running the show, too. The gift of time you’re giving is netting Open Books $1,500 from Pitchfork for our reading and writing programs (!!!) and bringing the literacy mission (and some rockin’ music) to tens of thousands of festival fans. (If you take pics this weekend, send ‘em and we’ll post.)

There are two BIG days of Pitchfork still left! To quote The Carpenters, we’ve only just begun!

Please bring your friends and come see us at the table. We’re right by Windy City rollergirls and our literacy friends, 826CHI (what could be cooler?). You’ll also find two Open Books Buddies from our Bucktown site, Michael and Kristin, working at the Chicago Independent Radio Project‘s record fair in the big tent. (You may recall CHIRP co-sponsored the Hidden Mitten’s Spring Sock Hop with Open Books in May.)

Finally, since I don’t have the cord to upload yesterday’s pics, I’ll share the one below from the Open Books Reading Garden at Schiller Elementary (by photographer Ryan Brown):

I learned from this pic that “hair pulled back, trying to look serious” is NOT a good look for me. However, if you can tell me why I sacrificed vanity to post it here and name the painting that inspired the pose, you can choose free books from my office next you’re at Open Books. . . . See you at Pitchfork, rain or shine! – Erin