It's Almost Friendiversary! Get Your Books Today!

We see that you have a sad face, because the holidays are over. Luckily, you are as wrong as you could possibly be, because the biggest, best, most excellent, excitingest, fanciest, greatest holiday of them all is on its way.

Friendiversary!

Yes! It’s true! Friendiversary 2012 will happen on Feb. 7! Or, maybe Feb. 8. Really, any day that week is fine, because Friendiversary is all about doing things in the best way possible.

A Friendiversary, of course, is the anniversary of a friendship. Think of one of your oldest and dearest friends. When did you first meet? How did you meet? That story is the story of your Friendiversary.

We celebrated the first annual Friendiversary last year with our friend Mo Willems, author and illustrator of the Elephant & Piggie books. Mo wanted to do something special for some of the kids in New Orleans (where he grew up) and Springfield, Mass. (near where he lives now), so he helped us give brand-new Elephant & Piggie books to every second-grader in those cities. Thanks, Mo!

It went so well that we’re doing it again this year, and we’ve opened the celebration up to EVERYONE in the First Book network. So any teacher or program leader from any of the 27,000 local schools and programs we work with can get their very own Friendiversary Kit – a big box filled with Elephant & Piggie books (40 copies of four different Elephant & Piggie titles), plus all kinds of cool Friendiversary stuff.

Check out the awesome Friendiversary Kit here.

(Be sure to place your order right away, because it will take a few weeks to get them to you, and we want everything to get there in time.)

If you work with kids from low-income families, but you’re not part of the First Book network (or if you know someone who fits that description), it is definitely not to late to get in on this. Just sign up with First Book (it’s free, and takes about five minutes) and you’re eligible to join the party.

And if you want to help bring a Friendiversary Kit to a school or program in your community that works with kids from low-income families, we can make it happen. Just give us a call at 800-READ-NOW or email help@firstbook.org.

Happy Friendiversary!