Wyoming Reads 2017
Newsletter #1
September 22, 2016

I.  2017 Book Selection:  We are thrilled to announce the book selections for the coming year! We thank all the members of our Selection Committee for their work in choosing a great lineup of books for next year. We have confirmed the availability of these six titles for 2017.

• Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins
• The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
• Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev
• Hoot and Peep by Lita Judge
• Good Night Baddies by Deborah Underwood
• Groovy Joe: Ice Cream and Dinosaurs by Eric Litwin

II. Contacts: Please let us know by October 1st if you are willing and able to be our contact for the 2017 celebration. If you are unable to serve please provide us with information for an alternate contact for your community. Thank you for your help with this!!

III.  Sample Sets: We will ask the Wyoming State Library to distribute the sample sets early again this year. Our plan is for the sets to be sent out in late November and early December to get them to the schools prior to Christmas break. We received positive feedback last year with this earlier distribution. We would like all book orders to be returned to us no later than January 27, 2017. This will give us more time for dealing with the inevitable surprises that seem to pop up every year. We’ll provide more details as the critical dates approach.

IV.  Fundraising: We are once more committing to provide the funding for the books, bookplates, and book bags across the state. This will be the 19th year for the celebration here in Casper and the 12th year this has been a statewide event. Assuming we have about 8,000 student participants statewide next year we will, with your help, have been blessed to provide over 103,000 Wyoming first graders with their very own personalized hardback book. Please identify a location for your celebration, add the special touches that work in your community and then get all your first graders together for your celebration. The scheduled date for next year’s celebration is May 16th, 2017. Please get it on your calendars now. Thanks to those of you who provide us leads for funding sources and who find grants in your community. Every little bit helps. Our budget for the coming year is $125,000 in cash and in-kind support.

V.  Joining Forces: As always, we encourage communities to consider joining forces with neighboring towns. The bigger and more exciting we can make each celebration the more memorable it will be for the children. We welcome any community to join us here in Casper!

VI.  Out of State Celebrations:  There will be 8 celebrations around the state of Oregon next spring as well as 2 more in Minnesota that are patterned after our Wyoming events. We have been honored to attend the events and participate in these exciting programs. Two cities in Northern California have contacted us and are considering launching celebrations next 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