I recently got an email from author and Room to Read Ambassador, Ann Martin Bowler, saying that the preschool she’s helped build in Vietnam is scheduled to open later this fall! Ann has been donating part of the proceeds from her school visits to Room to Read since 2007, so it’s wonderful to see how much has happened since then! To show support for Ann’s and Room to Read’s cause, in 2007 PaperTigers sponsored her all-day visit to Freeport School, in Sacramento, California.

Here’s the update she sent to all who helped her achieve her goal:

I recently visited Hoi Xuan Preschool [in the village of Hoi Tri, near Ho Chi Minh City], the Room to Read school in Vietnam that many of you helped to fundraise for. My son Jake and I toured this and other two schools and spent a good amount of time with the hard-working, dedicated Room to Read staff. I was delighted to confirm how important preschools are in the lives of Vietnamese children. You can see lots of fun pictures on my blog and learn why schools for 3-5 year-olds are vital in Vietnam.

A great big thank you to each and every person who helped fundraise for Hoi Xuan Preschool! Your efforts will truly make a difference in the lives of many Vietnamese children.

If you’d like to help me build a second school in Vietnam, I plan to continue donating a portion of every speaking engagement to Room to Read. I’d love to visit your school or community center!

Thanks for the update, Ann, and best of luck to you in your ongoing efforts to help build more schools in Vietnam!

For more details, check out Ann’s blog, World Change Starts with Educated People. She can also be reached by email.

Today the organizers of The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, given annually to books and works that reflect the spirit of Astrid Lindgren, have announced the 168 candidates nominated for the 2010 award (to download the nomination list as a pdf, click here).

The list of writers, illustrators, oral storytellers and literacy-related organizations, working in various literary traditions and languages, represents more than 60 countries and is a treasure trove of talent and commitment to books and reading.

In addition to author Allen Say and author/promoter of literacy Greg Mortenson, proudly nominated by us, the list includes, among many others, New Zealander author Margaret Mahy; Australian Hazel Edwards; South African Niki Daly; Mongolian writer/poet/promoter of reading Dashdondog Jamba and Filipino illustrator Albert Gamos. And for organizations promoting reading and literacy, it lists IBBY International; Room to Read, in the U.S.; Filipino publishing house Adarna; La Fundación Riecken from Guatemala, and many more.

Considering all these strong candidates, it looks like the jury members have their work cut out for them. Their decision will be a hard one to reach—but reach it they will (and expertly so)! The winner or winners will be announced in Vimmerby, Sweden (the birthplace of Astrid Lindgren) on March 24, 2010, and the announcement will be broadcast live to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, in Italy (which next year will take place March 23-25).

It was a very adult literary festival in Beijing where attendees listened to authors while sipping single-malt Scotch and cigarette smoking wasn’t prohibited. So it came as a distinct surprise when in a discussion of Orientalism versus reality in contemporary fiction, the subject shifted to children’s literature.

Born in 1965, author Liu Hong‘s childhood took place during the Cultural Revolution. As a teenager, after the death of Mao, she began to study English. The first book she read in English was Snow White, which she thought was beautiful, with its colored pictures printed on heavy paper; it was, she said, voluptuous and it turned her into a passionate reader of English literature.

English became her other world, her secret language. She kept a diary in English because her family couldn’t read it, and this became the currency of her thoughts and feelings. She moved on from Snow White to Wuthering Heights and years later was disappointed that in Yorkshire she did not get lost in the moors. 

Liu Hong is now a best-selling author of four novels, all of which she wrote in English. 

Who can predict what the effect of a beautiful, well-written children’s book can be? Although she didn’t specify which edition of Snow White made her a reader–and eventually a writer, Liu Hong could well have been influenced by Randall Jarrell and Nancy Ekholm Burkert’s Caldecott Honor award winner, which was published in 1973. 

Who knows, when we donate to organizations– like Room to Read or Books for Laos– that make children’s books in English available overseas, what best-selling author of the future will be caught by the experience of reading in English and will go on to enrich other readers in years to come?

Sometimes the simplest remark can be the most transforming. “Perhaps, sir, you will come back with books,” a Nepalese headmaster said to John Wood, a vacationing Microsoft employee, as they stood in a school library that had twenty books that “were all backpacker cast-offs.” Haunted by the thought of children who might never know the joy of reading, Wood returned home and spent a year gathering children’s books. He went back to the headmaster with 3,000 volumes and a new direction for his life. John Wood decided that bringing books to children who have none was his vocation and Room to Read was born, as he tells readers in Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.

Wood put together an organization with staff who share his dream and his passion, aided by a fundraising network of more than 3,000 people. The core programs of Room to Read are the Reading Room which has built 5,600 libraries,  Local Language Publishing which publishes and distributes books written both in English and the local language, the School Room which works with local communities to build schools with 444 in use, the Room to Grow Girls’ Scholarship that enables 4,000 girls to complete their secondary education, and the Computer and Language Room which builds computer and language labs.

Found in India, Sri Lanka, Zambia, South Africa, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, Room to Read is vitalized by donations and volunteers, who have discovered how they can help by going to www.roomtoread.org. All share a common goal—to have built 10,000 libraries by 2010.

Scheduled half-day visits to a Room to Read site are welcome with advance arrangement.

One man, one dream, 3,000 books– one optimistic remark changed a life and consequently thousands of lives are being changed through the power of reading and the joy of literacy, all over the world.

Last year, children’s book author and literacy advocate, Ann Martin Bowler announced she would donate her school speaking fees to Room to Read (a non-profit organization building schools and libraries in some of the poorest parts of Asia and Africa), with the goal of building a school in Vietnam. She has been an ambassador for Room to Read since the beginning of 2007.

Annie wrote me an email, last week, reporting on the success of her fundraising efforts. She was able to raise $17,000 and construction is due to begin in the fall for a pre-school in the village of Hoi Tri, near Ho Chi Minh City. The school will serve 180 students and its design and building process will count with the participation of the community. “The grade school in Hoi Tri is quite overcrowded–kids currently come to school in split shifts. Giving preschoolers their own school will free up classroom space, allowing more elementary students to attend school.”

In a 2007 interview for PaperTigers, she said: “After seeing little ones [in Indonesia] working or running on the streets because there is no school to attend, I had to do what I could to help Room to Read reach their goals. I believe that educating the world’s children is the best way to break the cycle of poverty, and Room to Read is striving to do just that, one school at a time.”

PaperTigers is proud to have helped Ann Martin Bowler achieve her commendable goal by sponsoring an all-day school visit to Freeport Elementary School in Sacramento, California. But Annie isn’t done yet! She just announced she will be donating her 2008/09 school year speaking fees to build another school!… We strongly encourage you to book one of her school visits this year. We can’t wait to hear about more schools being built and more needy children getting the education they deserve!

For information on school visits, check out her website and/or her Room to Read blog, “World Change Starts with Educated Children.”