MotherReader

Today for Nonfiction Monday, I need to mention a publisher that is providing fun, interesting, educational, and high-quality nonfiction titles to children. They are also providing this ah-dorable stuffed bear for our charity raffle at the Kidlitosphere Conference. He’s huge and cuddly, and my kids already don’t want to part with him. But someone at KidlitCon09 will win Bearport along with a few new titles from the Bearport catalog.

One title that I I will not be parting with is Miniature Horses, because, well... look at it! Horses playing soccer in the living room! How cute is that? This title is one of the new series of Peculiar Pets, which features ferrets, iguanas, and potbellied pigs.

Miniature Horses talks about the features and history of the breed, along with their needs as pets. The text is perfect for elementary school readers, and no one will be able to resist the pages of wonderful pictures of tiny horses. Like all Bearport nonfiction, the book features a glossary, bibliography, and fast facts. Now, I love minis so much that I took the whole family to the wildly overpriced — yet insanely cute — Land of Little Horses, so I was completely enchanted with the book. And totally not parting with it even for charity.

Hold it. Perhaps I should back up on the charity thing. At each conference, the host selects a cause and we have a raffle to raise money. The prizes are donated by authors, illustrators, publishers, and bloggers. This year I’ve turned to Donors Choose for our charity, and specifically to impoverished Washington, DC, schools. At this point I’ve selected two proposals to fund. I picked Literacy is Fun-damental because they need Spanish language books, which are hard to pick up at a discount or at a local book sale, and because the picture of the kids is soooo cute. I picked It All Starts With Reading! because they need titles for teens, and the picture of the empty bookcase is soooo sad.

If you aren’t coming to KidlitCon09 and would like to make a donation to these programs, we welcome your contribution. If you are wondering if there is any way to send books directly to these schools, I welcome you to investigate that and get back to me. If you would like to donate items for our raffle, please contact me at MotherReader AT gmail DOT com — especially if you have something besides books. I’m planning on sharing some of my MotherReader original recycled paper jewelry. Yes, it’s just as delightful as it sounds.

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today at Bookends, the Booklist Online blog.