Lit lovers are invited to shop curated collections from locally-owned bookstores and connect with other readers and book clubs in the area! Our book-themed silent auction and bookish merch are sure to satisfy that old-school nostalgia. For those with a competetive streak, be sure to enter the individual or group costume contest that could win you more than just bragging rights.

Visit the Books & Boos event page to learn more, sign up to be notified when tickets go on sale, and learn more about our corporate and individual sponsorship opportunities. 

Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind opportunity to support CLT readers, independent book stores, and children’s literacy.

The post Books & Boos: a NEW Book Fair for Grown-Ups this October! first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

Here’s what you need:

• books (hardback are best)
• a cup or something to represent the “hole”
• a golf ball & golf club (preferably a putter)
• a phone or camera to video record your “bookshot”
• a little creativity, ingenuity, and some patience

Set your books up between the ball’s starting point and the “hole” you’re aiming for. You can putt the ball down steps, under a book tower, through an upside down book, bounce it off of a standing book, or use a book as a ramp. Try out different configurations until you’re able to putt the ball through your book obstacles and get it into the “hole” in one try. Be creative and have fun!

Did we mention that every “bookshot” video, that follows the instructions below, will be entered into a drawing to win 2 Wells Fargo Championship Grounds Tickets (good any day of the 2024 tournament)? Bonus points if you tag a friend and challenge them to post their own “bookshot” video.

1. Post your “hole-in-one bookshot” video to Instagram or Facebook
2. Tag @PromisingPagesPage (on Facebook) or @PromisingPages (on Instagram) and @WellsFargoGolf
3. Hashtag your post with #bookshot

The winner of the tickets will be contacted through the social media channel they posted their video on. Can’t wait to see if you’ve won? Visit the Wells Fargo Championship website to purchase tickets or to learn more. Wells Fargo Championship May 6 – 12, 2024

Good luck and keep reading!

The post “Bookshot” could win you tickets to the Wells Fargo Championship! first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

After nearly 40 years as an educator and nonprofit professional, Eric Law is planning to retire from Promising Pages in December 2025. Yes, that’s almost two years away, but we’re working to manage our succession planning as strategically and intentionally as possible.

Accordingly, Eric and Kelly Cates have exchanged job titles as of January 1, 2024. Kelly is taking the reins as Executive Director, and Eric will remain on the team as Deputy Director.

We’re already started to rearrange job functions for the two of us and the rest of our team, to continue to increase our collective efficiency and effectiveness. We will each continue with many of the tasks we’ve always handled, but we will continue to tweak task assignments as necessary in preparation for 2026 and beyond.

We’re both excited about this transition, and look forward to continuing to work together with each other, our colleagues, and our partners to realize our important mission.

Thanks so much for your partnership and support!

The post Passing the Torch! first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

1. Local & national research around book access and literacy
2. Fun Facts, like “how tall is a stack of 1.5 million books?”
3. Event, volunteer, program, and partnership highlights
4. By the numbers recap of books and smiles

Click HERE to read the full report!

To be a part of our journey to end the Charlotte Area Book Desert and bring the joy of reading into children’s homes visit our Get Involved page. Thank you for your support, and here’s to many more chapters of success and impact together!

The post 2022-2023 Impact Report is here! first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

This past May, Promising Pages joined forces with the Diverse Books for All Coalition along with 38+ other non-profit organizations from around the country.  The coalition is working to…

• Double the number of quality diverse children’s books distributed by partner organizations in five years
• Unify the market of nonprofits to leverage the power of aggregate buying, influencing the availability and pricing of diverse children’s books
• Frame and elevate a national narrative to promote the importance of diverse books
• Ensure that parents, primary caregivers, early childhood providers, and educators have the resources and support they need to access and use diverse books in the programs, communities and classrooms.

Now more than ever, students need access to books that engage them and reflect their lives. If you’d like to support the work we’re doing locally, here are some ways you can help:

• Donate books from our Diverse Book Wish Lists
• Contribute to our Diverse Book Infusion Fund
• Be a part of our Booktoberfest Celebration

We’re honored to work alongside our colleagues, across the nation, to help more children see themselves reflected in the books they read. Learn more about the work we’re doing with the coalition here: https://www.diversebooksforall.org/.

The post Promising Pages + the Diverse Books for All Coalition first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

Local Author Alicia D. Williams knows what it’s like to grow up without a home library but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming an award-winning author. Her 2022 picture book The Talk has already received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor and the Golden Kite Honor Award for Picture Book Text. Her February Golden Kite Honor came with a bonus charitable cash award, which Alicia gifted to Promising Pages.

Queen City Nerve interviewed Williams who, “hopes that more folks will help support organizations like Promising Pages that are fighting on the front lines against the prevalence of book deserts. After all, she still remembers the books that made a difference for her as a young reader — books that led to her becoming an award-winning author.”

Check out QCNerve’s in-depth article about Williams, her journey, and how she’s using writing to get through the tough times.

If you’d like to support book access for all, we invite you to contribute to our Diverse Book Infusion Campaign and help us inspire future generations of award winning authors.

The post Golden Kite Honor Award Winner Alicia Williams Pays It Forward first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

WCNC-TV’s Wake Up Charlotte recently shined a light on the importance of book access in childhood literacy. Watch this one minute video to learn about the impact of books on children’s reading success and the frightening statistics around what can happen when children don’t have access to books.

Learn more about how you can be a part of the solution! By supporting Promising Pages, you can help provide book access to tens of thousands of area children and build home libraries for families that have few, if any books at home.

The post Childhood literacy dependent on books? first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

We still have a long way to go before all children in our area have the books they need to be successful, but we’re getting closer.

The post 2021-2022 Impact Report first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

To put it simply, Promising Pages would not be able to have the impact we have on the Charlotte Area Book Desert without the support of our partner organizations. This series of posts will highlight the partners we have had past and present who make a real impact in their communities in more ways than one.

Many of the kids who live in the Charlotte Area Book Desert also live in food deserts. We believe healthy food and books in the home are critical to a child’s development. In light of this, our Feed the Body, Feed the Mind program partners with local food banks and pantries to provide books alongside groceries and meals. As part of our Feed the Body, Feed the Mind program, Promising Pages has teamed up with several Loaves and Fishes‘ mobile pantries around the city. Mount Carmel Baptist Church, working out of The Harvest Center, has been one of our most productive pantries as they distribute our books along with nutritious groceries. In a little over a year, they have distributed more than 2,295 books to hundreds of families. Since becoming a part of the program, the women volunteers at the heart of the pantry have been dedicated and delightful to work with. They love their community and we are so thankful they are helping us build home libraries in Charlotte.

The post Partner Spotlight: Mount Carmel Food Pantry first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.

Channel 9 has partnered with Promising Pages to collect new and gently used books through their ‘9 Books for Kids’ drive. Our newest program Bookseed is one of our four programs that will benefit from the books collected. Reporter Elsa Gillis stopped by our Bookseed launch last week to chat with a few of the parents that were “seeding” their children’s home libraries by choosing 25 books for each child from birth to fifth grade.

Watch the news segment that aired this morning! WSOC-TV Bookseed Video  To donate books through the ‘9 Books for Kids’ book drive, visit Channel 9’s Donation Locations page.

Promising Pages’ Bookseed Program works with affordable housing communities and provides home libraries to children from birth to fifth grade. Each child self-selects 25 books to seed their home libraries. In addition, each community receives a Reading Resource Center where children and families can select free books year-round. Reading Resource Centers also connect parents to literacy partners, programs, & parent education opportunities. Bookseed gives families the tools to help their children grow as readers, the books for nightly bedtime stories, and the opportunity to raise children in a book-rich environment because readers are not born, they are grown.

The post WSOC-TV shines a light on Bookseed! first appeared on Promising Pages - The Charlotte Area Book Bank.