There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight! The 2016 Annual AALL Children’s Book Drive has begun, and will continue until the end of the Annual Meeting in Chicago (July, 2016). This year’s book drive will benefit Bernie’s Book Bank, an organization that distributes children’s books to significantly increase book ownership among at-risk infants, toddlers and grade school children throughout Chicagoland. Bernie’s Book Bank aims to give little children a leg up by pouring quality children’s books into at-risk homes that have been identified through schools and social service organizations, ensuring that children have access to books from infancy through grade school age, and that they start school “reading ready.” Bernie’s Book Bank sorts the books, ranging in reading level from infant to 6th grade, into bundles of 6 different age-appropriate books for each child, and delivers them directly into the hands of low-income children. Each child they serve receives a minimum of 12 books per year from Bernie’s, theirs to keep at home forever.
How can you help Bernie’s Book Bank provide books to children in need?
- Order a book online from the Amazon wishlist (or search for “AALL 2016” on Amazon under “Lists > Find a List or Registry.”)
- Send checks, payable to American Association of Law Libraries, or online bookstore gift cards to the Annual Book Drive Chair:
Megan Von Behren
Senior Research Services Manager
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
One New York Plaza
New York, NY 10004
- Drop off books for infants, toddlers, and grade school children, online bookstore gift cards, checks, or cash in Chicago at the Member Services booth in the Exhibit Hall. (Please no text books, workbooks, coloring books, reference material, or adult or young adult books.)
- Drop off physical books only for infants, toddlers, and grade school children to the Book Drive drop-off box in Chicago at the Registration area near the Hospitality Booth. (Please no text books, workbooks, coloring books, reference material, or adult or young adult books.)
For more information regarding the book drive, please contact Megan Von Behren, megan.vonbehren@friedfrank.com, or Stacy Etheredge, stacye@uidaho.edu. For information about the history of the annual book drive, see our article in Spectrum!