BookBar Puts 2500 Books in the Hands of Needy Children

This week, BookBar Denver, will be donating over 2500 children’s books to local students—and if that’s not fantastic enough, they made sure the books they plan to donate were written or illustrated by local authors and illustrators!

Don’t blink! When BookBar says they want to get something done, they move fast. At the beginning of May, BookBar Denver set a goal to get local author and illustrator books in the hands of needy children so these kids would have something to read over the summer. In order to meet that goal, BookBar reached out to the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) and allowed authors and illustrators to apply to have their book selected for purchase in BookBar's giveaway plan.

After carefully considering the following: relationship with individual publishers, book publication date, diversity of characters, settings, situations for the diverse community, price, and previous relationships with local authors and illustrators—BookBar chose 15 RMC SCBWI member titles and purchased an average of five cases of each title (all recorded by Bookscan). Here are the titles they selected:

Author or illustrator	Title
Regan, Dian	Space Boy and the Space Pirate
Fenske, Jonathan	Plankton is Pushy
Wing, Natasha	Night Before Summer Vacation
Cowles, Ashlee	Beneath Wandering Stars
Bertman, Jennifer	Book Scavenger
Jones, Traci	Silhouetted by the Blue
Tuell, Todd	Ninja Ninja Never Stop
Vega, Denise	If Your Monster Won't Go to Bed
Phumiruk, Dow	Maya Lin - Artist-Architect
Cooner, Donna	Can't Look Away
Feagan, Alice	School Days Around the World
Mills, Claudia	Cody Harmon, King of Pets
Rose, Judy	Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco
Crowder, Melanie	A Nearer Moon
Reidy, Jean	All Through My Town

More about their press release and birthday celebration: BookBar will be celebrating its fourth year as an independent bookstore and wine bar in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood on Saturday May 27th. Festivities will include raffles, literary games and giveaways all day from 10 am - 10 pm. There will be a cake cutting and champagne toast at 8 pm. In appreciation of four years of collaboration with local authors/illustrators and local schools, and in partnership with RMC SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), BookBar will be donating over 2500 children’s books by local authors to local schools!

These donations will be delivered to Northwest Denver schools the week of May 28th to ensure that children can take a book home for summer break. This is part of a program that BookBar and RMC SCBWI hope to expand upon in order to connect Colorado students with Colorado authors. BookBar is also excited to announce the addition of a 1400 square foot events and gallery space for the whole family. As the store continues to grow and thrive, there is an increasing need for a dedicated event space to serve our growing literary community. This space will include a mini bar / cafe and serve as a book art gallery during non-event hours, featuring local artists specializing in art created from and about books as informative literary showcases. In addition, it will be available for community events and meeting reservations

Thank you for all you do, BookBar!