Wyoming Reads 2016
Newsletter #1
October 7, 2015

I.  2016 Book Selection:  Here’s what you have all been waiting for.  We have confirmed availability of these six titles for 2016.  We are very pleased with this year’s selections.

• 11 Experiments that Failed by Jenny Ofill and Nancy Carpenter
• The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
• Dewey Bob by Judy Schachner
• If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, DON’T by Elise Parsley
• Joone by Emily Kate Moon
• That is NOT a Good Idea! by Mo Willems

II.  Sample Sets:  We will be asking the Wyoming State Library to distribute the 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 29, 2016. 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 2016 at $130,000 in cash and in-kind support.

V.  Contacts:  Please let us know if you are willing to serve as our community contact for the 2016 celebration.  If you are unable to serve please give us contact information for an alternate contact person.  Thank you!

VI.  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