Share the magic of reading
MY NAME is Holly Smale and I’m the author of the award-winning Geek Girl series, and more recently The Valentines.
I’m writing today to ask if you will help send books to people around the world who need them, by fundraising for Book Aid International on World Book Day, which takes place on Thursday March 7.
Books changed my life. Without access to books, I would not have discovered the magic of getting lost in a story, or the power of loving and connecting to a fictional character.
I would not have felt encouraged to my dreams of writing, and to eventually create stories of my own. And now, as an author visiting schools, I continually see the enormous impact books continue to have on young lives all over the UK.
Having seen and experienced the value of books, it is devastating to know that millions of children around the world have never even held a new one. This World Book Day, I am asking you to consider fundraising for Book Aid International.
Book Aid International is a brilliant charity that sends brand new books to thousands of libraries, schools, hospitals, refugee camps and prisons around the world. In the last three years alone, schools have raised over £350,000 by fundraising on World Book Day - that’s enough to send over 175,000 brand new books!
This year, we want to get more schools across the UK to take part. Just £2 sends another book, so no fundraising event is too small, and every single book could change a life.
Books could reach Syrian children struggling to learn despite the conflict they face, stock the shelves of a donkey-drawn library going from village to village in Zimbabwe or reach pupils in one of the world’s largest refugee camps in Northern Kenya.
There are many ways your school can fundraise on World Book Day – from dressing up as a favourite book character to holding a big Booky Breakfast, to something else entirely. Book Aid International has free resources to help you bring books to life while raising funds. Visit https://bookaid.org/wbd to find out more or call the charity on 020 77 33 3577.
This World Book Day, I hope that you will join me in supporting Book Aid International and help send books around the world to those who need them.
Happy fundraising!
Holly Smale Book Aid International