Program notes - Dear Wendy

Happy Lurker Introduction Day!

Guess what today is?! It’s Lurker Introduction Day (Take 3), a day when lurkers on this website are invited to come out of hiding and show themselves. It’s also a day I totally made up. But, look, I know what it’s like. I’ve been before, and am, a lurker on different sites. You read along for weeks or maybe months (maybe even years??) without ever having an intention to NOT participate — it just sort of happens that way. You might have things to say in the comments, but they’ve already been said a dozen or so other ways by other people — people who comment all the time. Or, maybe you’re…

DW Holiday Book Drive Success!

I got an email this morning from Ogo, a DW reader and the teacher of the middle school students we sent books to this year for our 3rd annual DW Holiday Book Drive. All the books arrived and she passed them out to her four middle school classes today. She wrote: “My students and I feel so blessed to be gifted these new books right before Christmas. You have the most awesome readers.” The photo above is of her 7th grade homeroom class. The books are being handed out to four separate classes: 6th grade, 7th grade, and two 8th grade classes. Thanks, again, to everyone who contributed this year and helped…

Happy Lurker Introduction Day!

Guess what today is?! It’s Lurker Introduction Day (Take 2), a day when lurkers on this website are invited to come out of hiding and show themselves. It’s also a day I totally made up. But, look, I know what it’s like. I’ve been before, and am, a lurker on different sites. You read along for weeks or maybe months (maybe even years??) without ever having an intention to NOT participate — it just sort of happens that way. You might have things to say in the comments, but they’ve already been said a dozen or so other ways by other people — people who comment all the time. Or, maybe you’re…

Happy Lurker Introduction Day!

Guess what today is?! It’s Lurker Introduction Day, a day when lurkers on this website are invited to come out of hiding and show themselves. It’s also a day I totally made up. But, look, I know what it’s like. I’ve been before, and am, a lurker on different sites. You read along for weeks or maybe months (maybe even years??) without ever having an intention to NOT participate — it just sort of happens that way. You might have things to say in the comments, but they’ve already been said a dozen or so other ways by other people — people who comment all the time. Or, maybe you’re kind of…

DW Holiday Book Drive: Thanks from a Teacher

I got the following email this morning from middle school teacher, Ogo A., who participated in our holiday book drive this year: Good morning Wendy,Today I had my students choose books from the books that came thanks to your readers. I am so touched by the generosity and act of love that made this day possible. My students were super excited and actually in awe that I would do something like this for them. They were buzzing around the books and poring over each page. They kept thanking me and hugging me. I explained to them about the book drive that I entered but it was like they didn’t even hear me….

Dear Wendy’s Second Annual Holiday Book Drive!

Last year’s last-minute book drive for a class in a low-income school in New Orleans was such a success — all the books on the teacher’s list were purchased within 90 minutes! — I decided to make it an annual event. This year’s holiday book drive is much more ambitious than last year’s — we have 3 teachers participating, with over 180 students all together, humbly requesting 215 books — and I’m hopeful we can reach the goal and purchase one book for every kid or, at the very least, get some new books for each classroom’s library. Keep reading to learn more about the participating classes, students, and teachers, and follow…

Updates: School Book Drive, a Success!

I received the following email from Carrie H., the reading teacher in New Orleans who created a book registry for DW readers to buy books for her students for Christmas: I am extremely grateful for the generosity of the DW readers who contributed to giving my students books! I was so impressed with how quickly you bought out my Amazon registry — less than 90 minutes! Thank you all so much. I came home from my second job last Saturday evening to a big plastic bag full of boxes and envelopes from Amazon sitting on my walkway. The last book arrived on Tuesday but the vast majority were here by Saturday. I…

UPDATE: DW’s Inaugural “Sponsor a Class for the Holidays”

UPDATE: In just over an hour after this post was published, all requested books for the students were purchased! Thanks, everyone! You all are awesome. Yesterday, a DW reader named Carrie, who’s a teacher in New Orleans, reached out to me about getting help buying books for her students this holiday season. I suggested she create a gift registry on Amazon, send me the permalink, and I’d share it with you. Here’s her message: “I am a reading teacher at an urban elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Our school has a 97% free- or reduced-lunch population. I work with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders who are behind grade level on reading….

Dear Wendy Book Club!

Since there are so many readers among us and since one of my New Year’s resolutions each year is to read more books and because open thread topics so often turn into discussions about books, I thought it would be fun to start a Dear Wendy book club in 2012. The way I envision it working: each month, we choose a book (by recommendation and then by poll) to read in the following month. Then, at the end of the month, we have an open thread discussion about it. We also make recommendations for the following book-of-the-month and vote via another poll. If y’all are game, we have just a few days…

End of content