Celebrating Mother Reader With a Donation to First Book!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

Our year-long blog birthday celebration continues as we honor blogger Pam Coughlan, aka Mother Reader, with a donation to First Book.

Pam also started blogging in 2006 and has been active in the Kidlitosphere over the last 8 years through the CYBILS, KidLitCon, and Kidlitosphere Central. She has written some hilarious posts throughout the years, and heads up BACA (Bloggers Against Celebrity Authors).

But what we'd like to recognize MotherReader for most of all is her 48 Hour Reading Challenge. In its ninth year this year, this read-a-thon has become an end-of-the-school-year ritual for us. We usually gather with local bloggers for breakfast and a trip to our local independent children's bookstore, Cover To Cover, and launch our summer #bookaday with a weekend filled with as many hours of reading as possible.

This year, Pam has taken the 48HRC to a whole new level by focusing on the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. She writes,

"I'm hoping with lots of participants over the weekend, that we can saturate the blogosphere with dozens - nay, HUNDREDS - of titles that show the beautiful range of the human experience. That's our challenge."

In honor of all of the reading Pam has inspired over the years with her blog and with 48HBC, and especially because of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks focus this year, we are making a donation in her honor to First Book, a non-profit organization that provides access to new books for children in need. In their video "Empty Shelves," First Book states their mission poetically. Because of access to books: 

"Heads fill with thoughts,
Homes fill with works,
Schools fill with learning,
Communities fill with leaders."

Thank you Pam! Thank you, MotherReader, for all you have done for books and literacy and the Kidlitosphere!