So today is International Book Giving Day and we have had this idea for a book project for the longest time…

At the beginning of our Summer we took a trip across our country to visit a rural village in Lesotho.

And we were incredibly blessed by all our readers who sent us school equipment. We had pens from Australia, crayons from Singapore, markers from Canada, paper from China, Crayons from South America. It was incredible. When we got to Lesotho, the school that we had expected to be ill-equipped was not equipped at all. They had no paper, no pencils, just a concrete floor and a lot of eager learners. We were able to take a box of about seventy books from Biblionef South Africa for the school and as the books were handed out so the children sat in the dust and started reading – overjoyed to be able to practice their skill.

For us teaching our children to read is an opportunity for them – a door that opens up to a whole world. Once our children can learn to read the world is literally their oyster – they can teach themselves anything, they can “travel” anywhere… in fact they can literally disappear into the world of books. For the children of Lesotho they are not so lucky. There are simply no books for them to read – none. Not even one. So while the children have learnt to read there are no dreams to be discovered, no adventures to go on, no wild and wacky places to visit, no exciting new skills to learn… They can read but the skill doesn’t open doors for them.

Now in our world we would go to the library… in their world their is no library… the nearest town was a fair way away and there were stalls on the pavement for selling produce – but no books. No book store, not even a stationary store. The capital city was over an hours drive away and unreachable to most of these folk, except maybe once a year to visit family – and there… there are no books either. It is simply a country where books are unavailable.

Well the school we visited has a dream… a dream of building a library… and we have a library, our kids have a library: these are our kids books over and above their fabulous collection of school books that increases by a shelf each year from Sonlight:

This week our kids and I are going to go through them and pick and choose the books we can share and post to the school in Lesotho. This afternoon we made book plates to go inside our books:






They turned out quite well… and they were quick and fun to make…








And this is where all of you come into play… the couple of books we post to Lesotho will not make a library, but if all my readers send just one book they would have a library of note… okay if just a hundred readers send a book they will have more than doubled the books in their village… So we are asking you if you could post a book to two to our friends in Lesotho. It doesn’t have to be a new book or an expensive book… a loved book is fine… an over loved book – not so much!!! Stories, educational, picture books, fact books, easy readers, classics, teen reads – anything… They read anything and it is an English medium school so the kids speak and read beautiful English. If you would like to add to your book, with a bookplate then feel free to print one out and color it, or add a bookmark, or a photograph of your kids and a letter about where you are from. Your books will be so appreciated and loved.

This is how it will work… I am giving us a window of opportunity… from now until the end of the month you can comment on this post, tell us you would like to send a book or even what books you would like to send – if you blog about it feel free to pop a link into your comments. At the end of each week I will email all of you who have commented with the address of the school in Lesotho, with postal instructions. If you have any questions then feel free to ask…
A lot of you have asked if you could use online shopping to send your books – I never thought of that so thanks for the brilliant suggestion… And just so as you know I am an affiliate with these sites and our blog will earn a very small percentage of your payment… If we earn enough to buy a book for Lesotho from your shopping we will most certainly add it to the library.
Firstly there is Amazon:
Then there is a local online bookstore, Kalahari, I am waiting and waiting and waiting… to hear if they deliver to Lesotho.
Meantime, comment away, we are dying to hear from you!!!
We would love to send some books to Lesotho! Our personal library is overflowing… I don’t know what it will cost from California, but we will send as many as we can afford.
Count us in! We would love to share some of our wealth of books. Have often wished we could! So let me know how when the time comes.
Please send me the information! We have so many books and I would love to use the opportunity to teach my son about real people who don’t have the same opportunities.
So inspiring! We would love to send some too – we have too many! Isn’t that crazy?
We can definetly go through our books and send some. Thanks for the oppurtunity to help!
Of course I’ll send a book. Se7en, would it be an idea to give details on an online bookshop in SA (or Lesotho, but I can imagine that there isn’t one) that can send books – this would reduce shipping costs for us from overseas? More money could then be spent on books rather than on postage? This is what i did last year when I encouraged readers to send books to Christchurch.
Hi Dana, So glad you want to help… I have no idea what the postage is but I know they will appreciate even one book!!! Have a great day and I will send details later in the week.
Thanks Suzanne, So glad you are happy to share!!!
Hi Terri, Thank-you!!! I will be sending out details later in the week – look out for an email from se7en!!!
Corli!!!How do you have too many books so soon!!! Don’t answer that!!! I realized in our big clean-out last year, when we reduced our books by half to fit bunk beds in, that we get gifted about 100 books a year… 100!!! Just counting up how many books we get from grannies and friends and so on… So now we are pretty stringent about: “Do you love it or not!” and we are keeping our library better contained and packed with books we love and adore… Hope you have a great week!!!
Shells, That’s fantastic… thank you!!!
Zoe, You are a genius!!! That is such a great idea, there are online-book shops in South Africa… and I am sure they deliver to South Africa. I will add the option to the post just as soon as I get a chance. So excited about the response so far, this is going to be brilliant!!!
Would also love to send them some of our books. Please count me in.
Dear se7en, I have been reading for years without commenting, but I would love to participate in this! I don’t have a ton of books because I moved to another continent and brought only my “must keep” books along, but I’d love to order a few from an online bookstore and have them sent.
Count me in too!
Count me in – always one to pass on the joy of reading 🙂
Please include me in the effort.
Yay, Cara… So good to have you on board!!!
DEar G, So good to meet you after so long!!! Thanks for joining in!!!
Great Aunty Muffin!!!
Thanks Irene, Great to have you join in our project!!!
Fabulous Ann… I am so pleased with all the replies!!!
We are going to send some books too!
Thank you!
Shipping terrifies me ($16 from one book from here to there!) but we would love to send from an online bookstore. 🙂
I have a few books but for smaller children I got some duplicates (can you believe it) as gifts , my son is now only 2. So think Baby books, barney and picture books mostly.
Hi Christa… I think online would be best for postage sake… we have two options for postage: airmail – madly expensive and surface mail, which obviously takes much longer but is less than half the price so worth it!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
TJ, books for younger children would be great, they do have a class of pre-schoolers so that would be fantastic!!! I am sure they would love to have whatever they send!!!
The kids would love to go through their bookselves (in fact they are right now), they won’t be new books but we have many nicer used books we can share, amount will depend on postage from here. They are excited to help 🙂
yes we would like to send some books we have some waiting for a home already!
I am sure we have some books we can send too!
We can do!
Deb, so happy to have your kids on board!!!
Thanks Tammy, Great to have you guys on board!!!
Hay Wendy, Thank you so much!!!
Thanks CRP!!!
We would love to send some books, thanks for organising!
What a wonderful idea! We would love to share some of our bounty of books!
We will be going through our shelves! Looking forward to how all of us will be impacted. Get us the details when you can.
Yes, we would love to send some books! Count us in!
We would love to bless these children. Please send us more information on the shipping or online purchasing. Thanks!
We are in. It’s probably more cost effective for us to send some books via online shopping 🙂
We’d love to help
Thanks Bee, that’s great!!!
Thanks Bee, that’s great!!! I will get back to you soon…
Brilliant Susan!!! I love to hear folks have a bounty of books!!!
Brilliant Susan!!! Right now I just love to hear from folks who have a bounty of books!!!
Hay Susan!!! Thank you, I love to hear from folk who have a bounty of books right now!!! Love it!!! Hope you have a good day!!!
Hi Melanie, Thanks so much for taking part!!! I will be emailing everyone on the weekend…
What a special opportunity – thank you! We would love to send some books.
Just a thought… in SA when you receive more than a few “gift parcels” in a year you need to pay customs / duties / VAT. Do you think this would be true in Lesotho? Would they end up paying after receiving lots of parcels and is there any way we could help avoid this – perhaps in the way we list the contents of the parcel “2nd hand books” with a cheap price or something?
Love, Karyn
Great Kimberly, So glad to hear you are on board!!!
Hay Valerie, I will be emailing out all the info this weekend… thanks so much for helping!!!
Yay Jess, So glad to have you along… we will be sending out the details this weekend!!!
Great Jacqui, So thankful for your help… Will let you know the details soon.
Hi Karyn, that’s a great point and I will be sure to include something like that into the directions I mail out on the weekend. Thanks you so much for your kind offer to help, have a great day!!!
We would like to be involved.
Fabulous Sarah, I will contact you over the weekend!!!
How fantastic. I will send some. Would it be okay if they are preloved but in good condition?
So good to hear from you Annabel Candy!!! I am absolutely sure that your pre-loved books will be so appreciated and loved a whole lot more!!! Thank you so much for your support!!!
We would love to be part of this wonderful initiative, thanks. Love, love reading and have also accumulated sooooo many children’s books so would love to be able to give some to such a good cause. Hope you have had a really good week!
Thanks Anita, That’s fabulous… I am loving how well folks are responding!!! Hope you are having a great week too!!!
This is so exciting:o) we would love to be a part of it!
Thank you Ellen!!! So good to have you onboard!!! Have a good weekend…
Count us in! We love books here and don’t know what we’d do without our library. We definitely want to help build a library for eager readers!
Hay Hawkeyejlp – So great to have you playing along!!!
Hello! What a fantastic idea! I teach first grade in rural Oklahoma, USA and I have been looking for a way to connect my class with the world and for them to be involved with helping others. We will collect as many books as we can and mail as many as we can afford! 🙂 Thank you for this opportunity to bless others!
Jaime I am so excited to hear from you, what a wonderful idea for your kids!!! Thank you so much for getting involved, you just made my day!!!
Please send on the address. We love books so much, and have been given so many, we’d love to pay it forward.
As always, we love your blog and admire your generosity.
We would like to send some books. It will be wonderful to pass on some of our gently-loved books to children who will appreciate them.
We would like to send on some of our gently-loved books. No library, what a crazy thought!
Great to have you on board Debbie, I think it is going to be great to provide them with something that we really take for granted!!! Hope you have a great week!!!
Count us in! We would like to send a BIG box of books, but the postage would probably be outrageous?! We are happy for the opportunity!
Thanks Kelly, We would love any books you can send… even one would be brilliant!!! Have a good day!!!
I just shipped my books and posted about it on Facebook! Excited!
Thanks Terri, So thrilled that you could join us!!! Have a great week!!!
Hi se7en, please send me the address! love the le Rouxs
It’s on its way, Kate, thanks for joining in!!!