Flap o’ the Jacket

I think I failed to mention this last week when the info was released.  Here then is the press release discussing JacketFlap and its use in terms of the Children’s Choice Book Awards:

JacketFlap Book Widget Helps Children’s Choice Book Awards Reach Hundreds of Thousands of People

LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 19, 2008 – To help build overall awareness of Children’s Book Week and drive voting for its newly launched national literacy initiative called the Children’s Choice Book Awards, the Children’s Book Council turned to JacketFlap.com to create a Children’s Choice Book Awards Widget. Over the past two months, the Widget has been added to more than 150 web sites and blogs of publishers, booksellers, authors, illustrators, librarians, teachers, and children’s literature bloggers, where it has been viewed more than 300,000 times by more than 250,000 people.

"Our Book Widget is like a mini-web page that can be embedded into any other blog or web site," explains Tracy Grand, CEO of JacketFlap. "People install the Widgets on their web sites because they display fresh and interesting content about great children’s books." Instructions for adding the Children’s Choice Book Awards Widget can be found at: http://www.jacketflap.com/widgets/widget.asp?widgetname=cbc1

For the past two months, every time a page with the Children’s Choice widget loaded on a blog or web site, it displayed the cover and information about one of the 25 different finalist books. The widget links to http://www.bookweekonline.com, where children were able to vote for their choice in each of five categories. Now that the winners were announced on May 13, the widget displays just the 5 winning
titles.

"We’ve been thrilled by the results of JacketFlap’s Widget program," said Robin Adelson, Executive Director of the Children’s Book Council. "JacketFlap has given us an innovative and powerful new tool to reach hundreds of thousands of people who are interested in children’s books and helping kids develop a love of reading."

Below are some examples of web sites that have installed the Children’s Choice Book Awards Widget:

Publisher blog examples:
http://charlesbridge.blogspot.com/
http://kanemillerkidlit.blogspot.com/
http://egmont-us.com/

Bookseller blog examples:
http://www.booksense.com/chunks/CBC/index.jsp
http://www.milestonebooks.net/20080512ChildrensBookWeek.htm

Author blog examples:
http://readingkidsbooks.blogspot.com/
http://loricalabrese.blogspot.com/
http://beverlystowemcclure.blogspot.com/
http://debloganwrites.blogspot.com/
http://umakrishnaswami.blogspot.com/
http://mpbarker.blogspot.com/

Illustrator blog examples:
http://dulemba.com/blogger.html
http://john-cartunemansdoodles.blogspot.com/
http://artworkbyimelda.blogspot.com/
http://nicoletadgell.blogspot.com/
http://rdchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/

Librarian blog examples:
http://awrungsponge.blogspot.com/
http://shelf-employed.blogspot.com/
http://inthepages.blogspot.com/
http://youthserviceslib.blogspot.com/
http://frlibyouth.blogspot.com/
http://www.lclibs.org/palmyra/childrens.php

Teacher / School examples:
http://www.yerbabuenaelementary.org/
http://peteredmundlucy7.blogspot.com/
http://carol-teacherstips-carol.blogspot.com/

Children’s Literature blog examples:
http://cwim.blogspot.com/
http://thereadingtub.blogspot.com/
http://writingforchildrencenter.com/
http://zero-to-eight.blogspot.com/

About the Children’s Book Council

The Children’s Book Council, established in 1945, is the nonprofit trade association of publishers of trade books for children and young adults in the United States. The CBC promotes the use and enjoyment of trade books for young people, most prominently as the official sponsor of Children’s Book Week, the longest running literacy event in the country. The goal of the Children’s Book Council is to make the reading and enjoyment of books for young people an essential part of America’s educational and social goals, as well as to enhance the public perception of the importance of reading by disseminating information about books for young people and about children’s book publishing. The CBC Foundation’s "Every Child a Reader" 501(c)(3) organization seeks to harness the collective power of the children’s book publishing industry to create a positive social impact in the nation’s communities. For more information about the CBC and the
National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, go to www.cbcbooks.org.

About JacketFlap

In 2006, JacketFlap.com was launched to provide a community and resource for people interested in books for children and young adults. JacketFlap’s goal is to help promote children’s books and the people who create them to ensure that children read great books and develop a lifelong love of reading. Thousands of children’s book fans, published writers, illustrators, librarians, agents, editors, publicists, booksellers, publishers and other professionals use JacketFlap daily for information and social networking. For more information, visit www.jacketflap.com.

Contact information:

Robin Adelson
Executive Director
The Children’s Book Council, Inc.
12 West 37th Street
New York, NY 10018-7480
Tel. 212-966-1990 x 306
Fax 212-966-2073
www.cbcbooks.org
robin.adelson@cbcbooks.org

Tracy Grand
CEO
JacketFlap.com
2934 1/2 Beverly Glen Circle
Suite 507
Bel Air, CA 90077
Tel. 310-709-2145
www.jacketflap.com/tracy
tgrand@jacketflap.com

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