Patty Norman, children's specialist and director of kids events at Copperfield's Books in Petaluma, Calif., has launched the Bookstormer Foundation, a nonprofit that will partner with Copperfield's to bring books to children in Title I schools.
Every school year, Copperfield's Books brings authors to dozens of schools in Northern California; going forward, every time Copperfield's brings an author to a Title I school, the Bookstormer Foundation will give a free copy of that author's book to every student who attends.
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| Patty Norman | |
Norman will continue to organize and plan children's events with Copperfield's and, as director of Bookstormer, she'll raise the funds necessary to purchase a copy of the author's book for each student who attends an author visit at a Title I school. She added that the books will be purchased from Copperfield's at a generous discount. A donation of $500 will provide a paperback book to every kid in an entire grade, while $1,000 will provide a picture book or hardcover book for an entire grade.
Last fall alone, Copperfield's brought 30 authors to 58 different schools. Audience sizes ranged from 11-550 students, and altogether the authors spoke to 11,890 students and 550 teachers. Norman explained that she has always tried to schedule authors to visit three schools--one Title I/low-income school, one middle-income school and one upper-income school--in the hope that the visits to the upper- and middle-income schools will subsidize the visits to the low-income schools.
Norman said she's wanted to do something more with the store's school visits for a long time. Last year, after three big events at Title I schools, Norman realized that now was the time. "Imagine, I thought, what we could do if I could provide books for every kid at low income school visits," she recalled. "What a difference it would make!"
The Bookstormer Foundation will kick off in the 2019-2020 school year, and every book it gives to a student will feature a bookplate and bookmark stating the name of the business or organization that helped provide that book.