Dear Parents:

This letter is to introduce you to our Birthday Book program here at St. Christopher School. It is designed as a fun way to build our library while recognizing your child's special day. Through this program, old, damaged and outdated books are replaced with new ones that capture the imaginations of added many new books to our library, thanks to the generous support of our school community.

The Birthday Book Program is completely voluntary. The month before your child's birthday, you will receive an email, reminding you about this program and your option to participate. It will refer you to the St. Christopher website, under Forms, you will be able to download a Birthday Book Order Form. The form will have a listing of book topics, as well as a place to write down your child's favorite author. You will be asked to choose 3 topics your child is interested in and enter his/her Accelerated Reader (AR) reading level. We find that most upper-grade students (grades 5-8) prefer to fill out this form so that they will receive a book that is both interesting and within their reading levels. We ask that you submit $15 to cover the cost of the book and processing fees.

You also have the option to purchase a birthday book yourself to donate to the library. If you choose to do this, please contact Mrs. Polini (dpolini@stchris.us) for a list of suggestions or approval for a specific title and author. We ask that you submit $5, along with the book, to cover the cost of processing fees.

A bookplate with your child's name, birth date, current school year and homeroom will be placed on the inside cover of the birthday book. The book will be presented to your child, during library time, and can be taken home for 2 weeks (1 week for 1st graders) to share with your family. The book will then be returned to the library for everyone else to enjoy.

We look forward to working with you and building the library collections to further enrich your children's lives.

*** June & July birthdays are processed with May birthdays (April reminder) August birthdays are processed with September birthdays (September reminder) However, we are happy to process orders throughout the school year if you miss your child's birthday month.

5/6/10