The Words Alive Reader: April 19, 2021

Welcome to The Words Alive Reader, a regular newsletter keeping you up-to-date with the latest in how we've been connecting children, teens, and families to the power of reading. What have we been up to and how can you help? Read on to find out!

13-Year-Old Aden Raises More Than $1,200 for Words Alive

A picture of Aden reading a book.

"I want to make sure others can enjoy the pleasure of reading without barriers standing in their way." — Aden

Words Alive would like to thank Aden for hosting a readathon with three of her friends to raise money for us, all the way from Washington, D.C.! As part of her Bat Mitzvah project, she has already raised over $1,200 to support our mission—more than double her initial $500 goal. Aden and her friends have already documented 3,369 minutes read. We are so inspired by her example and grateful for her support. Learn more about the project and help Aden reach her new $1,500 goal here!

Family Literacy Program with DEEP

A screenshot from one of our Family Literacy Program sessions.

We were excited to welcome 40 children (from 29 families) to the latest wave of our Family Literacy Program! Thanks to Diamond Educational Excellence Partnership (DEEP) and our dedicated volunteers, we shared six weeks of early literacy programming in Spanish and English with parents and their preschool age kids. We had a blast reading, singing, and doing crafts together, and are looking forward to many more Family Literacy Program sessions in the future. In the meantime, if you’re looking for literacy resources for the little ones in your life, visit our website!

Highlighting Asian American and Pacific Islander Stories

A graphic with a collage of some of the AAPI authors we featured and their books.

We know that authentic, diverse representation in the stories we read is a powerful way to combat hatred and build community. We use our social media platforms (@WordsAliveSD) to spotlight authors who represent the lived experiences of the children, teens, and families we serve.

Recently we've been proud to share the voices of authors from the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, such as Jenny Han, Kelly Yang, Randy Ribay, and more. For our latest blog post, we've compiled these spotlights as a resource to help all of us diversify the books we're reading. Check it out here!

Thank You, UCSD!

Three volunteers from UCSD jump for joy in front of a van packed with learning kit supplies.

Thank you to the dozens of UC San Diego students who took time out of their spring break to assemble learning kits with craft supplies, books and reading activities for us!  Learning Kits are stocked with the tools students need to succeed: pens and pencils, stationery, scissors, and, of course, new books. If you’d like to help, check out our Amazon wishlist to help us provide even more learning kits to students and families.

Join Us This Thursday For Our Volunteer Appreciation Celebration

A graphic that says “You’re Invited! Words Alive’s 12th Annual Volunteer Appreciation Celebration, Presented by EY.” In the bottom half, it says “Thursday, April 22 at 4PM PT. Sign up to join us for an optional breakout session to participate in the 2021 Art & Lit project!”

We want to celebrate you! You are invited to Words Alive's 12th Annual Volunteer Appreciation Celebration, presented by EY. The event takes place this week on Thursday, April 22nd at 4 pm PT.

Join us as we reflect on a year of incredible contributions from volunteers all across San Diego, the United States, and the world! ​​​​​​​During the hour-long event, join us as we present service awards to distinguished volunteers in our community and hear from organization and community leaders about the impact we made over the past year. There will also be a sneak-preview of our 2021 Art & Lit Experience.

Meet Fellow Volunteers at the Welcome Wagon

All aboard the Welcome Wagon! New to Words Alive or looking to meet other volunteers? Want to know what teams like the Curriculum Crew and Social Media Squad have been up to recently?

Come to this monthly event to meet new and veteran volunteers, learn more about each team and the projects they work on, and have fun! The next Welcome Wagon is leaving the station on Thursday, April 29th at 3pm PT.

Text that reads “MEET FELLOW VOLUNTEERS AT THE WORDS ALIVE WELCOME WAGON: Thursday, April 29th at 3 pm PT” over a floral blue, orange, and pink background.

Donate here to support Words Alive!

This newsletter, in addition to our blog and social media content, is written by us, a cohort of volunteers! Do you love writing and have an interest in helping Words Alive create this type of content? We'd love your help! Email to learn more.

- Zoe, Eli, Nia and Titiksha, Words Alive Storytelling Team

April Page Turner of the Month

Every month we like to highlight one of our superstar Page Turners!

our April Page Turner of the Month is…

Sumaya Abdel-Motagaly

How did you get started with Words Alive? 

I had been looking for a way to fulfill my high school volunteer requirements when I stumbled across the Words Alive website. As an avid reader, I was instantly intrigued and wanted to join right away!

What has been the best book you've read with Page Turners?

The best book I've read with Page Turners would have to be Muslim Girls Rise: Inspirational Champions of Our Time by Saira Mir. As a young Muslim woman myself, this book deeply resonated with me. Growing up, I never had the privilege of reading books that I could identify with and I'm thankful that Words Alive helped introduce them to me. I hope that it helps empower other minority children as they read more books representing them that they can positively relate with. 

Why did you start reading books with Page Turners and why do you continue?

I love to read, and I always have!

What city are you based in?

Baltimore, Maryland 

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Want to become a Page Turner? Get started below:

Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Stories

Here at Words Alive, we love celebrating the diverse narratives and lived experiences that make our community so wonderful. We grieve the horrific and heartbreaking surge in violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders over the last year, and we believe that authentic and diverse representation in the stories we read is one of many ways to #StopAsianHate.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but as a start, we wanted to highlight the voices of some of our favorite #AAPI authors. To #StandUpforAAPI in solidarity with the AAPI community, we invite you to diversify your shelves with us!

Randy Ribay's book The Patron Saints of Nothing is a favorite for our students. It's a beautiful novel about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin's murder. Learn more about Randy here.

Last year, our Page Turners helped us identify "Hello, Universe" as a great book for Words Alive students, and they were right! Erin Entrada Kelly’s middle grade novel follows four characters on a journey about identity, bravery, and friendship. We highly recommend you pick up this book to step into a world of diverse and interesting characters, in celebration of #DeafAwarenessMonth, and just to read a fantastic story. Our students love it and you will too! Learn more about Erin here.

We love the incredible writing of Kelly Yang. In her middle grade novel "Front Desk", Kelly gives us a glimpse into the life of the plucky, young, second-generation immigrant Mia Tang and her quest to help her parents and find herself. Learn more about Kelly here.

You may recognize "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" as Netflix movies, but first they were books! Jenny Han introduces us to charming characters and sprinkles Lara Jean's Korean roots, love, friendships and heartbreaks throughout the book series. To quote from the book, "I suppose I'll say it all started with a love letter." Learn more about Jenny here.

Sarah Kuhn’s popular Heroine Complex series stars Asian American superheroines. If you love a fast-paced adventure featuring strong, interesting characters, then this book is for you! Learn more about Sarah here.

We hope you’ve found some new authors and books to add to your shelves! Who are your favorite AAPI authors? Share them with us in the comments below.

Congrats to our President's Volunteer Service Award Winners!

In 2003, the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation founded the President’s Volunteer Service Award to recognize the important role of volunteers in America’s strength and national identity. This award honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action too.

This Award honors the volunteers who are using their time and talents to solve some of the toughest challenges facing our nation.  Now, more than ever, literacy is one of the toughest challenges facing our nation.  Pared with learning to read, making true, meaningful connections to text is the key to unlocking the power of reading. 

This year, we are honored to celebrate 6 volunteers who are making these meaningful connections happen. Feel free to watch the video of our ceremony for these incredible volunteers, as well as read more about each of them, below!

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Anika Mehra is being awarded the Bronze Award in recognition of 103 hours supporting our Page Turners program. At last count, Anika has reviewed 24 books for our Page Turners program from her home in the Bay Area. Thanks to her thoughtful reviews, six of the titles have already been selected and added to Words Alive’s curriculum. As an example about how thoughtful Anika is she wrote this about the novel Stef Soto: Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres:

“This book inspired me to think deeply about real-world issues, such as how many immigrants who come to the US constantly have to face an uphill battle since they are not only in a new country, likely learning a new language and culture, but also having to face different social, emotional, and even economic barriers.”

Caleb Samson is being awarded the Bronze Award in recognition of 107 hours supporting the development of Words Alive’s curriculum in 2020. Caleb joined the Words Alive team as a curriculum writer and displayed a real talent for creating quality guides for both teachers and families. Every question or prompt he creates is thoughtful, purposeful, and fun – all of which is so important to our programming. He is excellent at writing curriculum for all ages – teens and toddlers alike, which is quite a skill!  As an example, Caleb wrote curriculum so Words Alive could integrate Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay into our curriculum.  The book, a National Book Award Finalist, was released less than a year ago.

Zoe Wong is being awarded the Bronze Award in recognition of 160 hours supporting Words Alive in better telling our story. Zoe started volunteering for us early in the pandemic to support our social media work. She had great ideas to contribute at our monthly social media strategy meetings and never hesitated to take initiative on those ideas and propel our online content forward. Zoe took on additional responsibilities to help us tell our story by connecting the Words Alive community in a virtual world.  She has interviewed over a dozen members of the Words Alive community capturing and sharing their stories in video, blog posts, and through social media.  In addition, Zoe leads a group of more than 10 volunteers to tell Words Alive stories through our blog and newsletters.

Teoman Yazar is being awarded the Bronze Award in recognition of 70 hours supporting our Page Turners program. At age 11, Teoman is our youngest volunteer being recognized with this award.  We are so inspired by how committed he is to connecting other youth with the power of reading. Teoman has read 976 pages for Page Turners including The Whispers by Greg Howard, The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert, The Wave by Todd Strasser, and The First Rule of Punk by Celia Perez. After reading The Whispers, Teoman shared that:

“[the book] taught me to think about what has happened and not just ignore everything bad that happens.”

Noshin Akhtar, is being awarded the Silver Award in recognition of your 91 service hours supporting Page Turners. Another Bay Area volunteer, and at just 15 years old, Noshin has reviewed 35 books for us in the past year.  Titles on that list include First Rule of Punk by Celia Perez, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer de Leon, Jackpot by Nic Stone, and The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline.

 Noshin began volunteering with Words Alive as part of the #CaliforniansForAll Summer of Service statewide initiative in 2020.  She was searching for a way to help people while staying safe at home – and gravitated towards an opportunity to use her love of reading to do so. 

 Noshin’s insight into dozens of books is helping us identify the best titles to connect other teens with stories that reflect their lived experiences.  I’d like to share with you powerful insight Noshin shared with us after she read Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lai. 

“I tried to put myself in Hà's shoes and imagine myself as a 10-year old never feeling emotionally secure with only my mother and brothers to help and support me regardless of the rare kindness shown by the people of my new country, but soon realized that unless I'm cast out into another world with the offer of peace and comfort but still not finding it, I could never understand the genuine pain these immigrant children had to suffer from daily in a new and strange environment.”

 Noshin shared with us that when she found Words Alive and the Page Turners program she instinctively knew she needed to join our book-loving community.  In fact, she called it the “perfect opportunity for an over enthusiastic bookworm” like her. And we are certainly lucky to have Noshin in our book-loving community. 

Annika Schafer is being recognized with the Gold Award in recognition of an extraordinary 416 hours leading and growing our Page Turners program. Annika has been a stellar volunteer for Words Alive for many years now, hosting book drives, writing curriculum, and even helping us with the behind-the-scenes infrastructure needed to produce our curriculum. In 2020 she stepped up for Words Alive in a major way. When the pandemic hit, Annika asked us how she could help Words Alive respond.

 From her home in San Diego, and then her pandemic home-away-from-home in Upstate New York, Annika stepped up to volunteer to lead our Page Turners program. 

• She quadrupled the Page Turners volunteer base and expanded the program’s reach internationally.

• She built an entirely new database and communications structure to help the program scale.

• She designed and implemented strategies to recruit and celebrate our Page Turners community.

• In this work, Annika managed relationships with Fortune 500 corporations and service groups from Brooklyn to Irvine.

 Annika paved the way for Page Turners to be a volunteer-led program. She built the infrastructure to guide volunteers to contribute nearly 4,900 hours in support of the program.  Said another way, every 1 volunteer hour Annika invested it resulted in volunteers contributing another 12 hours.

 She has since trained a new cohort of volunteers to lead Page Turners and is stepping into her next volunteer role with Words Alive – hopefully helping us grow again. We are overjoyed to have Annika in our community – and are a stronger organization for her service.

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Again, Congratulations to Annika, Noshin, Teoman, Zoe, Caleb, and Anika! We appreciate everything you have done for Words Alive. If you are inspired by these volunteers and want to join our team, click here.

Why Mentorship Matters: Thoughts From a WAWS Mentor

This personal essay was written by one of our volunteers, Ameena Vasim! Ameena is a mentor in our Words Alive Westreich Scholarship (WAWS) program, in which we pair graduates from our Adolescent Book Group with mentors and resources as they pursue their higher education goals. Mentoring has played a significant role in Ameena's personal life, so it's a topic that she's passionate about. She shares with us what a mentor is and why mentoring matters.

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Mentors: we have all heard about them. But few of us, including me, have stopped to think about their significance in our lives.

Let’s start from the beginning: the origin of the word “Mentor.” According to Wikipedia, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus. When Odysseus left for the Trojan War, he placed Mentor in charge of his son Telemachus. When Athena visited Telemachus, she took the disguise of Mentor. As Mentor, the goddess encouraged Telemachus to stand up against the suitors and go abroad to find out what happened to his father. Because of Mentor's relationship with Telemachus, and the disguised Athena's encouragement, the name Mentor has been adopted in Latin and other languages, including English, as a term meaning someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with a less-experienced colleague.

One of my favorite quotes is from Galileo Galilei: “You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself.” Mentors are people who help us discover what's within us.

The success and accomplishments of my life are largely attributed to my mentors, people who imparted wisdom, shared their knowledge and showed me the ropes. Who are these mentors and where do we find them? Mentors are teachers who help guide us, build our confidence and develop the character required to propel our lives forward in a positive direction. Regular people around us, like our parents, grandparents, a teacher, an elder sibling, a movie actor or even a cartoon character, can all act as mentors in our lives.

The mentor/mentee relationship is nuanced and special. The mentee is the driver in the relationship: they decide the destination and the route to reach it. A mentor, on the other hand, is bringing their expertise to guide the mentee. They are bringing their wisdom to light someone's path. If you don’t know what you want from them, they won’t be able to help you. Every meeting with the mentor needs to have a clear agenda and when you leave the meeting, you should have a list of action items. It is possible that some of these action items would require a considerable amount of time and work and it is also possible that you might hit a wall with them. The objective here is to brainstorm these challenges, work out the kinks and show progress.

Another common misconception is that mentors are primarily for help with education and career. However, our personal lives are not separate from our professional lives; they are integrated and need to be well balanced for us to grow. Be it for personal or professional reasons, the intention to have a better life and to accomplish our goals is one of the drivers to find mentors. There is no shame in asking for help; you will be surprised at people’s willingness to offer it.

So how do you know when you need a mentor? Personally, when I am faced with questions like "What now? Where do I go from here? How do I deal with this?", I know that I need a mentor. But before I look for a mentor, I start by formulating the problem statement clearly in my mind. When we are stuck, our anxiety, uncertainty and the fear of the unknown creates a noise, a fog that can hide the underlying problem. It is important to filter out this noise. I sit with the issue for a few days, and meditate to define it. Once I understand my problem, I do a little research to get more information on the subject. Then I look around in my network to see who I can reach out to.

Drawing an example from my personal life, a few years ago I got a bad rating at work. This impacted my career ambitions. I was not only angry or disappointed, but also confused. From my perspective I did everything right: in my mind I was a hard-working employee who was meeting all the deadlines and doing what was supposed to be done. These negative feelings stayed with me for a while, changing my attitude towards work to a noticeable extent. I discussed this situation with my spiritual mentor and I realized that I was allowing this anger, disappointment and confusion to blur the actual problem. I got too wrapped up in the symptoms and lost the focus on the actual cause. I meditated and defined my problem statement clearly. I arranged for a meeting with my senior manager.

When I walked into her office, I was calm and I had a clear agenda. I said, “I take full responsibility for the ratings that I got this year. There are definitely gaps that are blocking me from moving forward. Unless I know these gaps, I won’t be able to rectify them. I need help and guidance; perhaps a mentor who can provide a different perspective?” There were no complaints, no mention of any disappointments, just a well-articulated problem with an intention of seeking next steps. She referred me to a mentor. I not only got the best rating the corresponding year but in a couple years I got promoted.

I don’t think there is any accomplished person on this planet who did not have a mentor. The technology at our fingertips has made it very easy to learn on your own. If anything, we are drowning in information. However, we can all benefit from surrounding ourselves with people, who might not teach us information, but rather help us discover the talents, passions, and strengths within ourselves.

So, next time you are struggling with a problem, reflect on whether or not a mentor might be able to help you. Take that first step of defining your problem statement, embrace the possibility of mentorship, and then see which doors you might be able to open with mentors to guide your way.

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As a WAWS mentor and the author of this post, Ameena beautifully illustrates the importance of mentorship. All of these reasons she’s explained (and more!) and the same reasons we are so adamant about providing our scholars with mentorship—we recognize that not everyone has equal access to caring people who can serve as mentors, and we want to ensure that our scholars have that opportunity. Mentors help our scholars discover their strengths and passions, share new perspectives on their challenges, guide them through tough decisions, and perhaps most importantly, encourage professional and personal growth. Learn more about our scholars and how you can support them here.

The Words Alive Reader: March 19, 2021

Welcome to The Words Alive Reader, a regular newsletter keeping you up-to-date with the latest in how we've been connecting children, teens, and families to the power of reading. What have we been up to and how can you help? Read on to find out!

Meet Our 11-Year-Old Volunteer, Elise!

A picture of Elise on a blue and orange background.

Elise Goldwasser is one of our youngest volunteers ever! She is passionate about reading and joined us as a volunteer fundraiser for our latest Champions for Youth campaign. She reminds us: “People should be more accepting of kids and not make everything ‘only adults,’ because kids can do a lot of things too!”

Her story shows kids—and adults—what is possible when we use our passion to serve our communities. Read more about her experience with Words Alive and why everyone should volunteer on our blog!

Thank You, San Diego Gulls and Cal Coast

A big pile of learning supplies ready to give away to students: books, colored pencils, glue sticks, and more!

Words Alive would like to thank the San Diego Gulls Foundation and Cal Coast Credit Union for hosting a book and learning supply drive for us in celebration of Read Across America Day! Thanks to their support, we received $3,925 in cash, plus more than $400 worth of learning supplies from our Amazon wishlist. We are so grateful for the generosity of our community and can't wait to get these supplies into the hands of our students. If you would like to help us provide even more books and learning supplies to students and families, you can purchase something from our wishlist right now!

Celebrate Women's History Month with Cover to Cover

The cover of Internment by Samira Ahmed. A girl wearing a baseball cap that says “Resist.”

Women’s History Month is here! If you’d like to celebrate with us, grab a copy of this month’s Cover to Cover book, Internment, by Samira Ahmed.

Internment follows a teenager named Layla and her family, who are forced into an internment camp for Muslim-Americans. Even though it is set in the future, this novel is very much about our past, and even our present, and the ways in which we are in danger of repeating history if we don't examine it.

Every week, we release new activities for 9th-12th graders to engage with the important ideas in diverse, young adult literature. Follow along here!

Save the Date: Volunteer Appreciation Celebration

A graphic that says “You’re Invited! Words Alive’s 12th Annual Volunteer Appreciation Celebration, Presented by EY.” In the bottom half, it says “Thursday, April 22 at 4PM PT. Sign up to join us for an optional breakout session to participate in the 2021 Art & Lit project!”

We want to celebrate you! You are invited to the 12th Annual Volunteer Appreciation Celebration, taking place on Thursday, April 22nd at 4:00 PM PT. Join us as we reflect on a year of incredible contributions from volunteers all across San Diego, the United States, and the world! Save the date and a Zoom link will be made available soon.

Donate here to support Words Alive!

This newsletter, in addition to our blog and social media content, is written by us, a cohort of volunteers! Do you love writing and have an interest in helping Words Alive create this type of content? We'd love your help! Email to learn more.

- Zoe, Eli, Nia and Titiksha, Words Alive Storytelling Team

Plot Twist: Elise Goldwasser

Welcome to our blog series, Plot Twist! Here, we'll be sharing the stories of people in the Words Alive community — stories of change, growth, and maybe a few surprising twists! We hope that through these stories, you'll get to know our community a little better and see the power of literacy come to life.

Meet Elise Goldwasser, one of our youngest volunteers ever! Elise is 11 years old and in 5th grade. She lives in Northern California and loves to read, play the guitar, draw and dance. Recently, she joined us as a volunteer fundraiser for our Champions for Youth campaign. We talked to Elise about her experience with Words Alive and why everyone should volunteer, no matter how old they are!

Elise decided to start volunteering during the pandemic. “I was bored during quarantine,” she says, “and I just wanted to do something to help other people, particularly kids.” She first heard of Words Alive from her sister’s teacher, who shared an opportunity to record read aloud videos through our Kids Reading to Kids project. Because of changes in publisher permissions, Elise wasn’t able to record a video, but she was still committed to making an impact with Words Alive. She signed up to host a fundraising page for us during our 2020 Champions for Youth Campaign and raised $130 to support our mission!  

One reason Elise wanted to get involved with Words Alive is that reading is one of her passions. She loves too many books to pick a favorite, but one that she enjoyed recently is One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia.

She also knows that it’s important for kids to learn how to read. “It just helps them be successful in life, because it helps them in school—even math, with word problems and things,” she says. “It gets them into a good college and helps them get a job.”

What does Elise have to say to kids who don't like reading? “They haven’t found the right book!” Through her work with Words Alive, she wants to help other kids to discover the power of reading and learn to love books like she does.

Elise cares about giving back to her community in other ways, too. It wasn’t always easy to find volunteer opportunities that accepted kids, but she didn’t let that stop her. She volunteered with Resistance Labs (now Movement Labs) as a text banker for the 2020 presidential election and the Senate runoffs in Georgia, helping people get resources to vote. She also works with another organization, By Kids for Kids, to help younger children with reading.  

“You feel like you’re making a difference, and that’s really cool. I didn’t really know I had the power to do that before.”

All of this volunteering has been an empowering experience for Elise. “It’s definitely exciting, because you feel like you’re making a difference, and that’s really cool,” she says. “I didn’t really know I had the power to do that before.” She hopes that more kids will be able to try volunteering. “It gives them that responsibility and just learning about helping people from a young age,” she says.

And, as a challenge to kids and adults alike, she says, “There’s no reason they can’t [volunteer]! You should just do it because you can find something with a lot of work, or not that much.” If you want to give back, but aren’t sure where to start, Elise says, “Volunteer for something you’re passionate about, because that will be more fun for you. And for kids, take advantage of the places you can volunteer, because for me, there weren’t that many.”

In the future, she says, “I hope that Words Alive just continues to do what they do and help kids learn how to read and find a love for reading.” Elise hopes to do more work with Words Alive when she’s older! And in the meantime, she hopes that even more organizations will open their doors to kids who want to help.

“People should be more accepting of kids and not make everything ‘only adults,’ because kids can do a lot of things too!”

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We couldn’t agree more. Elise, thank you for showing kids—and adults—what’s possible when we use our passions to serve our communities.

This post was created by Zoe Wong, a Words Alive volunteer! Do you love writing and have an interest in helping Words Alive create this type of content? We'd love to have you on the team! Email to learn more.

March Page Turner of the Month

Every month we like to highlight one of our superstar Page Turners!

our March Page Turner of the Month is…

Christine Northup

How did you get started with Words Alive?

I started volunteering with Words Alive about a month or two into the pandemic. It was difficult during the initial shut down and I wanted to help as a virtual volunteer. I found the Page Turners opportunity through a Google search, and since I love to read, it was a perfect fit!

What has been the best book you've read with Page Turners?

I've enjoyed reading many of the Page Turner books, but my favorites so far are Patron Saints of Nothing and Sabrina & Corina. 

Why did you start reading books with Page Turners and why do you continue?

As mentioned, volunteering as a Page Turner seemed like a perfect fit because of my love of reading. I was really drawn to Words Alive's mission of instilling a love of reading and inspiring students to become lifelong learners. Also, I love the flexibility! If I sign up for a book and life gets too busy, there's no pressure if I have to put my reading or review on hold for a bit. At the same time, each Page Turners sign-up keeps me accountable and committed to completing the book and my review.

How has being a Page Turner changed the way you read or think about reading?

Being a Page Turner has really changed the way I view YA Fiction, which is much more complex than I remember! I always seem to be learning something new.

What city are you based in?

I'm based in San Diego.

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Want to become a Page Turner? Get started below:

The Words Alive Reader: February 26, 2021

Welcome to The Words Alive Reader, a regular newsletter keeping you up-to-date with the latest in how we've been connecting children, teens, and families to the power of reading. What have we been up to and how can you help? Read on to find out!

FLP Launches at Lindsay Community School

A picture of our porcupine craft: a drawing of a porcupine decorated with toothpicks. Writing above the porcupine says “"‘He feels spikey. Comb his hair!’ — Starling”

In early February, we kicked off a fully-virtual version of our Family Literacy Program at Lindsay Community School! The Lindsay School, our longest-standing partner school, serves pregnant and parenting teens. Thanks to the generosity of the Words Alive community, we are now working with both the teen moms and their children.

In advance of our first session, families received Learning Kits for each of the weeks we’re learning together. Learning Kits include a copy of the story, parent guides, and craft materials related to the book.  At our first session, we read How Do You Hug a Porcupine? The kids followed along with the story – read in English and Spanish by our outstanding teaching artists — and then together we completed the most adorable porcupine craft projects!

If you'd like to help us provide books and learning supplies to students in our Family Literacy Program, check out our Amazon wishlist the next time you’re shopping online.

Celebrating Our 200th Story Station

A graphic that says “200 days of Story Station!” next to pictures of three of our volunteer Story Station Conductors.

"The greatest gain is being able to model the behaviors that we'd love to see parents embrace in the home." — Jim McIlhon, Story Station volunteer, on the power of virtual read alouds

We recently shared our 200th live read aloud on Story Station! Our daily read alouds on Facebook Live (every weekday at 2 pm PT) have become a beloved way for children and families to connect through the power of story.

Want to celebrate with us? Check out this blog post about one of our Story Station conductors, Mr. Jim, to learn more about why sharing stories with children and families is so important.

Meet our Curriculum Leads

A graphic featuring pictures of our four Curriculum Leads: Cheryl Converse-Rath, Nanditha Krishnan, Vivian Lin, and Marcus Weber.

We are thrilled to introduce four incredible volunteers who have stepped up to lead our Curriculum Crew: Cheryl, Nanditha, Vivian, and Marcus! Words Alive’s Curriculum Leads coordinate the 80+ volunteers who are writing, editing, and designing the curriculum used in our programming – both in person and online. Discover their favorite books, reasons for volunteering, challenges and rewards of being a Curriculum Crew Lead Volunteer, and more in our new blog post.

Champions for Youth Bonus Funding Results

A graphic that says “Champion for Youth Results.” The graphic features the words “$53,000 Bonus Funding” over a trophy, with the words “$93,000 total!” at the bottom.

Throughout December and January, we had the exciting opportunity to participate in the Champions for Youth campaign with the Century Club of San Diego and Farmers Insurance.  

The results are in: all together, we earned $92,400 through the campaign – which included over $53,000 in bonus funding that was based on the number of individuals who made a gift, of any size, in support of the campaign.  

Thank you so much to everyone who supported us! Even if you missed out on the campaign, it's never too late to support our students and families. Learn how you can give here. 

We’re Hiring

A graphic that says “Join the team as our Engagement Director” above a picture of our staff.

Do you love providing people with opportunities to invest in causes they care about? Are you passionate about the power of reading? Come work with us!

We're looking for an Engagement Director to join our leadership team. You'll help us strategically engage our community to support our mission through investments of time, skills, donations, and resources. Learn more about this exciting opportunity here, and help us spread the word.

Donate here to support Words Alive!

This newsletter, in addition to our blog and social media content, is written by us, a cohort of volunteers! Do you love writing and have an interest in helping Words Alive create this type of content? We'd love your help! Email to learn more.

- Zoe, Eli, Nia and Titiksha, Words Alive Storytelling Team

February Page Turner of the Month

Every month we like to highlight one of our superstar Page Turners. Our amazing February Page Turner has read over 60 hours worth of books since she first joined.

our February Page Turner of the Month is…

Ileana Vazquez

1) Why did you start reading books with Page Turners and why do you continue?

I began volunteering with Page Turners initially because I found it to be a great opportunity and I was interested in incorporating the experience into my senior project. The more books I read, the more I wanted to keep reading with Page Turners! The books I read had such engaging, diverse experiences and I think it's important that other students like myself are able to experience those stories as well.

2) What has been the best book you've read with Page Turners?

Pride by Ibi Zoboi was the best book I’ve read with Page Turners. As a fan of the novel Pride and Prejudice, I really appreciated the diversity and the celebration of Afro-Latino culture in the book!

3) What city are you based in?

Denver, CO

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Want to become a Page Turner? Get started below: