Our Favorite Picture Books and #ReadItForward

I love library books – I love that I can check things out, read brand-new titles, and save tons of money. If there’s anything I’m happy for my tax dollars to go to, it’s library funding.

But there’s just nothing quite like a book you own.

I like being able to lend it out, mark up the pages, not worry about reading it before it is due, and returning to it anytime I want, even months or years later.

I like seeing my books on the shelf and remembering favorite parts or where I was when I read them. And I loved pulling out Ella’s favorite books to read to Ani and now to Star. And they are thrilled about seeing them make reappearances too.

It delights me that The UPS Store has been working on getting books into the hands of underprivileged children since 2008 with their partnership with Toys for Tots. Every year they have a holiday donation drive to collect loose change and sell donation cards at their 4500 stores, 100% of which goes to buy books for children who don’t have them.

They’ve raised more than $3 million and each year distribute nearly 5 million books. How amazing is that?

This year, they’re doing something extra special – for every person who shares their favorite children’s book (picture or chapter!) on social media with the hashtag #ReadItForward, they’ll donate a dollar, up to $50,000.

You can do a video reading a line or two from a book, a photo of the cover, or just share the title. (Or if social media isn’t your thing, you can donate directly here).

Of course, I didn’t need a lot of arm-twisting to share our favorite books either – the five of us each chose our favorite picture books from our bookshelf with no input from me (except for Star – I picked for her, and this is the one book she will sit still for, instead of attempting to dive off the couch).