Candlewick Press Partners with Nonprofits in Celebration of 25 Years of Maisy
SOMERVILLE, MA, October 25, 2016 – With more than 35 million copies sold around the world, Lucy Cousins’s Maisy books have been consistently on target when it comes to engaging children. One of the most beloved characters in preschool households today, the good-natured Maisy stars in more than one hundred books – and is now celebrating her twenty-fifth anniversary!
In honor of twenty-five years of Maisy, Candlewick Press is pleased to announce partnerships with three nonprofit organizations supporting diverse and significant needs: The Molina Foundation, Nemours Reading BrightStart!, and United Through Reading.
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Candlewick Press will donate several thousand Maisy books in English and Spanish to The Molina Foundation, to assist the foundation’s efforts to promote early literacy in the ESL and Hispanic communities. The donation will give needy children and families across the country the opportunity to grow their at-home libraries. In addition, families will be able to participate in fun and festive Maisy-themed reading parties featuring engaging literacy activities and giveaways, including Maisy ears, stickers, and bookmarks.
The Molina Foundation is a national nonprofit organization based in Long Beach, California focused on reducing disparities in access to education and health. Since its inception in 2004, The Molina Foundation has worked hand-in-hand with more than 2,500 organizations and schools toward this end, donating more than 4 million books to low-income and at-risk children and families and providing resources for parents, educators, and teachers.
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Candlewick Press will partner with Nemours Reading BrightStart! to support their mission of developing strategies and tools to help all kids find a path to reading success. Candlewick and Nemours Reading BrightStart! will create a video demonstrating techniques for how to read with a child featuring Maisy Goes to the Hospital. In addition, Nemours Reading BrightStart! will host a social media contest using the Maisy anniversary hashtag #25YearsofMaisy and will highlight recommended Maisy books on their website. New Maisy read-along guides and activities to help caregivers implement methods recommended by Nemours Reading BrightStart! will be available via the organization’s social media and e-newsletter.
Nemours Reading BrightStart! researches, develops, and offers evidence-based tools targeting young children at risk for reading failure. Their goal is to effectively instruct children at the very beginning of their reading journey to ensure long-term reading success. Nemours Reading BrightStart! helps parents, educators, health care professionals, and community leaders understand key concepts and actions needed to promote reading success for all children through a variety of specific tools, services, and resources.
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Candlewick Press will work with United Through Reading to help ease the stress of separation for military families through recorded bedtime stories. Deployed service members will read Maisy Goes to Bed (now available in a new twenty-fifth anniversary edition) and the bestselling Maisy’s Bedtime to the children they love at home. Candlewick has donated these Maisy titles to be distributed to active duty commands so military personnel participating in the United Through Reading program can share this special book with their young readers at home. Additional Maisy book donations from Candlewick will be handed out to military families at events in California, Colorado, Virginia, Washington, DC, and more, with special guest appearances by the Maisy costume character at select events.
United Through Reading is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) public benefit organization dedicated to uniting U.S. military families who face physical separation by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud together. In more than 200 locations worldwide, United Through Reading offers military service members the opportunity to be video-recorded reading books to their children at home. The program creates emotional connections between parents and their children, encourages early literacy skills, instills a love of reading, and makes reunion easier on military families.
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ABOUT CANDLEWICK PRESS Candlewick Press is an independent publisher based in Somerville, Massachusetts. For over twenty years, Candlewick has published outstanding children’s books for readers of all ages, including books by award-winning authors and illustrators such as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature emeritus Kate DiCamillo, M. T. Anderson, Jon Klassen, and Laura Amy Schlitz; the widely acclaimed Judy Moody, Mercy Watson, and ’Ology series; and favorites such as Guess How Much I Love You, Where’s Waldo?, and Maisy. Candlewick is part of the Walker Books Group, together with Walker Books UK in London and Walker Books Australia. The Walker Books Group has a unique ownership structure that includes all of its employees worldwide. Visit Candlewick online at www.candlewick.com.
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