Monday, December 10, 2007

Looking for a unique gift this holiday season?

Give someone you love one of these unique student-authored books while helping to fund our free student programming!

826LA: The cart-pushing, corn-selling elotes man will soon be gone, warn the students of John Marshall High School. So, too, will they go; this stand-out generation of students will soon disappear into adulthood. The newest 826LA collection, The Elotes Man Will Soon Be Gone, captures and preserves their spirit for all to read. This anthology of narratives, essays, and more tells you what life is like for these students. After reading musings on moving and the places we call home, confrontations with glass and dogs and death, an ode to Kurt Cobain, and a (literally) gut-wrenching fantasy, you'll be glad you caught The Elotes Man... before it's gone.

826 Seattle: Consider picking up a copy of 826 Seattle's lates book, Burning the Past (with audio CD), with a foreword by Charles Mudede. This is a collection of essays and stories on the topic of change written by 47 students at John Marshall Alternative High School. According to Audre Gallegos, a teacher at John Marshall involved with the project: "Remember what it was like to be twelve, fifteen, seventeen? Ask yourself how you can help a child grow into an adult with grace and dignity. Remind yourself how much children depend on us to guide them, and remember to do so as well as you possibly can."

826 Valencia: Exactly is our first hardcover book, and was recently awarded a Moonbeam Spirit Award from the Jenkins Group, for its “inspired writing and illustrating, enthusiasm for words and the printed page, and compassion for children and humanity.” Student authors from Wallenberg Traditional High School worked closely with Valencia tutors and Bay Area artists to create Exactly: 10 Beavers, 9 Fairies, 8 Dreams, 7 Knights, 6 Princesses, 5 Dogs, 4 Otters, 3 Old Men, 2 Robots, 1 Traveling Shoe & Everything Else it Takes to Make a Great Children’s Story Book, More or Less, an unprecedented anthology of fifty-six beautifully illustrated and heartwarming children’s stories. A perfect gift for your favorite young reader.



826 Michigan: Last spring, we released the highly successful and critically lauded Vacansopapurosophobia, or V. We had so much fun doing it and were so proud of the final product, we decided to do it again. The title, which means “fear of a blank page,” was chosen by the same group of people who chose the content: a group of teens from the Neutral Zone. This volume features sixty-six stories, poems, essays, and a play, all of which will most certainly astound and amaze you.


826NYC: You can purchase Behind the Uniforms, a wildly creative collection of graphic stories by the students of Brooklyn's Academy of College Preparation and Career Exploration. These stories, truthful, sincere, at times incredibly funny, showcase the lives and imaginations of students who, at a young age, have something honest to say. This book features 20 graphic stories written by 9th graders during an in-schools project that took place in February and March 2007.

826 Chicago: A Sunday Afternoon Hotdog Meal is a guide to Chicago written and illustrated by 205 elementary school students.  As the book’s subtitle suggests, this Chicago guide will give you the skinny on many of the city’s time-tested locales and traditions, but it will also allow you a glimpse into where to find more unique offerings, including but not limited to “shrimp from the future, a park shaped like a spot of paint, six-foot tall smelly, sweaty men, a pizza crust that’s humongous, kind and friendly neighbors, and cabs that smell like fresh flowers.”