Cheerios Trivia Challenge: Play & vote for HAWAII!

In the popular children's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, what were the mashed potatoes?

If you can answer that question and others just like it, then you can help Hawaii win 20,000 new books in the Cheerios and FirstBook Challenge!

Cheerios will give away a total of 100,000 books away to children in low-income communities across the country through the national nonprofit organization FirstBook! The top 5 states with the most votes will get a share of the books to distribute in their state.

All you have to do is visit the site and answer trivia questions about popular children's books like The Cat in the Hat or Harold and the Purple Crayon! It's fun for you AND your kids. For each question you answer correctly you get to vote for your state. There's no limit and even if you get the question wrong you can try again and again. It's easy and your participation and support will help us ensure that all of Hawaii's keiki have a chance to enjoy their own books.

Visit Cheerios & FirstBook 100,000 Book Giveaway and play the trivia challenge today! Send it to your friends, family or coworkers and see who can get the most votes! Your help will go a long way in helping us provide Hawaii keiki with much needed reading material.

Many mahalos for your kokua and for continuing to help us support literacy in the community!

Local Award Winning Children's Books!

Looking for a good book to read with your keiki this month? Try one of Hawaii's locally produced, award winning picture books! Last week the Hawaii Book Publishers Association announced their annual Ka Palapala Po'okela Award winners for 2009 excellence in publishing.

Pulelehua and Mamaki (Bishop Museum Press, 2009) by Janice Crowl won the award for 'Best Children's Literature' and is perfect for spring/summer reading. It's the story of a butterfly named Pulelehua who finds the same mamaki tree that sheltered her through her growth. Pulelehua leaves her own egg on this same mamaki tree and we follow along as the tree nurtures it to become a beautiful Kamehameha butterfly.

It's not just a story about the wonders of nature, but a perfect analogy to encourage the preservation our environment for future generations... of butterfly AND people. Gorgeous illustrations by Harinani Orme capture the Hawaiian rain forest in all it's shades of green, it really makes you want to go outside to explore and learn.

Too Many Mangoes (Island Heritage, 2009) by Tami Paikai won as Honorable Mention in the 'Best Children's Literature' and 'Children's Illustrative Books'. It's a story about two little keiki helping their Grandpa pick mangoes. They get a little excited and pick too many so Grandpa tells them to give some away. It's a cute little story about the importance of sharing and how rewarding it can be.

The illustrations by Don Robinson are so adoreably charming! Soft lines and lots of color, with interesting angles and a playful sense of size make this a fun picture book to read. You and your kids will have fun looking at the illustrations and following along as Kama and Nani bring joy to others by sharing their mangoes.

We highly recommend both book for reading with your keiki! For more award winners in the 2010 Ka Palapala Po'okela Awards and links where each book can be purchased, visit Hawaii Book Blog. They have a comprehensive list of winners and honorable mentions as well as a nice re-cap of the award ceremony.

Thanks for making our celebration and distribution events a success!

I know this post is a few weeks tardy but we still wanted to thank everyone who made our celebration and distribution possible. Both events were a tremendous success! Check out our slide show of pictures from the celebration rally.



There are so many people to recognize for their efforts, if we've forgotten to mention you send us a comment so we can be sure to properly thank you!

Many thanks also to Vivian Aiona, Lynne Waihee, Pat Mizuno, Wally Amos and Uluwehi Guerrero! 

Be sure to keep a look out for more online voting contests from First Book national. Even though we won the WBGYH contest in 2009, Hawaii is still eligible to win in 2010 and there is certainly a need for books here!

Community Celebration -TOMORROW!

Are you excited yet? I sure am!! Our Community Celebration Rally is TOMORROW, and is it just me or did this month fly by? Our First Book National reps have just landed in Honolulu and things are coming together for an awesome event.

In addition to the special guests and speakers mentioned in our earlier post, we're going to have costume characters available for the kids to meet and take pictures with at the beginning of our program and then again after story time! Who's gonna be there? Well....

Tigger, Barney & Bugs Bunny!

But this event isn't just for the kids, there's Uluwehi Guerrero with live Hawaiian music and hula, plus literacy and nonprofit organizations with have booths set up for you to browse.

So come on down to the State Library tomorrow 3/25 at 11:30 for some fun and snacks. Help us celebrate this fantastic win!