“Wyoming Reads 2015”

Newsletter #2

October 9, 2014

I. 2015 Book Selection: Here’s what you have all been waiting for. We have confirmed availability of these six titles for 2015. We are very pleased with this year’s selections.

1) Gigantosaurus by Jonny Duddle;

2) Open Very Carefully by Nick Bromley;

3) Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski;

4) Flight School by Lita Judge;

5) Boy & Bot by Ame Dyckman;

6) The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.

II. Sample Sets: We will be asking the Wyoming State Library to distributethe sample sets early this year. The current plan will be for the sets to be sent out in late November and early December. This will get them to the schools prior to the Christmas break. We will ask for all book orders to be returned to us not later than January 30, 2015. This will give us a bit more leeway when dealing with the inevitable surprises that seem to come along every year. We will provide more details as we approach those dates.

III. Joining Forces: As always, we want to encourage communities to come together to celebrate literacy next May. The bigger and more exciting we can make each celebration the more memorable it will be for the children. Any community wishing to join us here in Casper would be most welcome.

IV. Fundraising: We are once more committing to provide the funding for the books, bookplates and book bags across the state. Your assignment is to identify a location for your celebration, add the special touches that work in your community and then get all your first graders together for the big day!

We want to say thank you to those of you who provide us leads for funding sources and those who find grants in your community. We appreciate any financial support you can help us with. We are planning to maintain the budget for 2015 at $130,000 in cash and in-kind support.

V. Out of State Celebrations: There are a half dozen celebrations in the state of Oregon as well as two cities in Minnesota that have patterned their celebrations on your Wyoming events. We have been blessed to travel to all of those each year to participate in these exciting programs. All of these combined events provide hardback, personalized books to nearly 4,000 additional children each year!

Thank you for your continued support of “Wyoming Reads!” We welcome any suggestions you might have to improve the experience for the children.

John Jorgensen