HarperCollins Children's Books, Barnes & Noble and First Book Announce "If You Give a Child a Book" Donation Program

NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- HarperCollins Children's Books, Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) and First Book announced today the launch of the "If You Give a Child a Book" program, a promotion with the goal of donating up to 60,000 books from a selection of young adult and children's titles.  The program celebrates the October 4, 2011 publication of IF YOU GIVE A DOG A DONUT, the ninth installment in the #1 New York Times bestselling If You Give… book™ series by award-winning team Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond.  

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111005/NY80806 )

From October 4 through October 31, 2011, for each of the first 30,000 books purchased in Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond's If You Give… book™ series at a Barnes & Noble store or on BN.com, two books will be donated to kids in need through First Book, the non-profit organization dedicated to transforming children's lives by providing them with new books.  In honor of this program, Laura Numeroff will be visiting three Barnes & Noble stores across the country:

"National Story time Day" on October 15th at 11:00am in Princeton, NJ
"Educator Week Event" on October 22nd at 1:00pm in Rancho Cucamonga, CA
"If You Give a Child a Book Grand Finale Event" on October 29th at 1:00pm in Tyson's Corner, VA

In addition, Barnes & Noble.com will feature the Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond classic, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie in this month's Online Storytime program.  A monthly feature, Barnes & Noble.com's Online Storytime is perfect for children ages two through six and showcases favorite children's books read by well-known authors and celebrities.  To enhance the Storytime experience, illustrations and artwork are brought to life through pan-and-scan technology.  Barnes & Noble.com will have an If You Give… page with a selection of Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond books and toys (www.bn.com/storytime).  

"HarperCollins is proud to be partnering with Barnes & Noble and First Book for such a great cause and to celebrate the launch of If You Give a Dog a Donut," says Susan Katz, President and Publishers, HarperCollins Children's Books.   "With everyone's generous efforts, we will be donating books to children in need all across the country."   

"Barnes & Noble is thrilled to partner with HarperCollins and First Book on this promotion," said Mary Amicucci, Vice President of Children's Books at Barnes & Noble, Inc.  "Barnes & Noble is passionate about getting books into the hands of children to foster learning, growth and imagination.  The If You Give… series has always been a favorite series among our customers and participating in the If You Give… promotion is a wonderful way for us to donate books to children in need."  

"The generosity of partners like Barnes & Noble and HarperCollins - and their customers - will enable us to provide thousands of brand-new books to children from low-income families across the country," said Kyle Zimmer, President and CEO of First Book. "This series is one of our favorites, and we're delighted that more kids reading these great books will mean more kids in our national network of schools and programs who'll receive new books of their own."

The "If You Give a Child a Book" program is open to all U.S. residents.  For more information about this program, please visit BN.COM/ifyougive.

About the If You Give…book™ series:

Author Laura Numeroff and illustrator Felicia Bond created the beloved If You Give a Mouse a Cookie in 1985. The book launched a bestselling series, including If You Give a Moose a Muffin (1991), If You Give a Pig a Pancake (1998), If You Take a Mouse to the Movies (2000), If You Take a Mouse to School (2002), If You Give a Pig a Party (2005), Mouse, Cookies & More Treasury (2006), and If You Give a Cat a Cupcake (2008). The books in the series have sold more than 38 million copies and have been translated into 13 languages.  In 2000, Oprah Winfrey called If You Give a Pig a Pancake her "favorite book for children" and featured it on her "My Favorite Things" Christmas 2000 episode.  During the 2001 Inauguration, First Lady Laura Bush honored the creators of the If You Give…book™ series at "Laura Bush Celebrates American Authors," and she invited Laura Numeroff to the White House for the 2004 Easter Egg Roll.  Recently, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie was a featured question on Jeopardy!, and was mentioned in the movie Air Force One.  

Laura Numeroff is the bestselling author of a number of books for children, including the If You Give… book™ series illustrated by Felicia Bond; The Chicken Sisters, illustrated by Sharleen Collicott and Laura Numeroff's 10-Step Guide to Living with Your Monster illustrated by Nate Evans. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Felicia Bond is the renowned illustrator of the If You Give… book™ series written by Laura Numeroff; Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and Little Porcupine's Christmas by Joseph Slate. She is also the author of The Day It Rained Hearts, The Halloween Play and the Poinsettia books. She lives in Santa Fe, N.M.

ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN'S BOOKS

HarperCollins Children's Books is one of the leading publishers of children's books. Respected worldwide for its tradition of publishing quality, award-winning books for young readers, HarperCollins is home to many timeless treasures—Charlotte's Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends, the Ramona series, Where the Wild Things Are; and popular new classics—The Graveyard Book, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Warriors, and Fancy Nancy. Consistently at the forefront of digital innovation, HarperCollins Children's Books delights young readers through engaging storytelling in all formats, including ebooks and apps. HarperCollins Children's Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, one of the leading English-language publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia/New Zealand, and India. You can visit HarperCollins Children's Books at www.harpercollinschildrens.com and HarperCollins Publishers at www.harpercollins.com.

ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE, INC.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 704 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 635 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States.  Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble's NOOK™ eReading product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices, partner company products, and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.   General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.  Follow Barnes & Noble on Twitter (www.bn.com/twitter), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/barnesandnoble) and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/bnstudio).

ABOUT FIRST BOOK

First Book has distributed more than 85 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the United States and Canada.  By making new, high-quality books available on an ongoing basis, First Book is transforming the lives of children in need and elevating the quality of education. For more information, please visit them online or follow their latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE Harper Collins Children's Books