We have a winner on our giveaway of "The Legend of Honey Hollow"

Thanks to all the participants in our giveaway of "The Legend of Honey Hollow".

We got great response to our question what is the best way to teach children to appreciate wildlife both on our blog and on Green Options, where our review was published as well. It looks like the common rule of giving an example also works here, with the added value of presenting children with great stories that helps them learn about it, just like the book we have here.

And we have a winner! Our winner is Big Binder who presented an hybrid approach and wrote the following:

That's a really good question! We spend a lot of time at the Nature Center trying to do just that - they read a book, then take the kids out on a 'tour'. It's a tough balance to teach kids to appreciate wildlife without getting 'too close' and putting themselves in danger of disturbing a habitat.

Congrats to the winner who will receive a copy of "The Legend of Honey Hollow" by Jeanne McNaney. Eco-Libris will also plant one tree for this book!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

We did it! Our Facebook community has grown to over 1,000 members!

We are very happy to announce that we ended a very successful green campaign on Facebook.

The campaign that took place on April focused on our Facebook group and included tree planting, giveaway of green books and an effort to increase our Facebook group to 1000 members.

And we did it! On April 30 we reached our goal and on May 1, we had 1036 members! Now, we're going to plant a tree on behalf of all the 455 new members that joined our group on April, so all together we'll have 455 new trees to be planted with our planting partner AIR in Guatemala.

So it's time to say thank you to all the participants in our campaign - to the new members, to the existing members that encouraged their friends to join, to friends who helped us to spread the word and last but not least - to all of our partners that donated great books for the giveaways we had during the campaign. THANK YOU ALL!

Our work on Facebook though has not ended and we'll continue to provide our growing community with information and updates on our work and quest to make reading more sustainable, photos from the planting areas of course and special offers from our partners.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Looking for a good green laugh? the Goode Family is (almost) here!

Green issues are usually very serious ones, but then green can also be very funny.

Don't believe me? check out The Goode Family, a new cartoon from Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butt-head and the King of the Hill, is “an animated caricature of every Whole-Foods-shopping, hybrid-driving, African-orphan-adopting, vegan-dog-having do-gooder you’ve ever met.”

The show premieres May 27 on ABC (thanks to Grist for the info) and here's a little taste of it:



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Our joint campaign with Barefoot Books 'Buy a Book, Plant a tree' continues for one more month!

We are happy to update you that our collaboration with Barefoot Books in the joint campaign 'Buy a book, plant a tree' continues for another month!

As we updated you last month, Barefoot Books released on April a great children's book entitled 'Earth Tales', and we're planting a tree for every copy sold in April. And now it continues to May - a tree will be planted for every copy sold this month.

Earth Tales is a very unique book. In this beautiful anthology of folktales, young readers learn how different cultures around the world live in harmony with the rhythms and patterns of nature. Discover how to tread lightly on our precious Earth by following the easy eco-tips and trying out some of the fun and creative activities that accompany each story. This is the perfect gift for any earth-conscious child! You can find our review of the book at http://ecolibris.blogspot.com/2009/04/mondays-green-books-series-part-2-earth.html

The book is available for sale at http://www.barefoot-books.com/us/site/pages/productone.php?pid=2432

And last but not least - we want again to thank Substance, a design agency based in Manchester, England with an interest in environmental issues, which created the beautiful poster you see above in celebration of our partnership with Barefoot Books.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Our Facebook campaign is ending today and we're 5 members short of our 1000 members goal!

Today is the last day to our April green campaign on our Facebook group and we're almost meeting our goal of having 1,000 members by the end of April!

Right now we have 995 members and a little bit more than 10 hours until the end of the day (EST), so we can definitely do it!!

Here's what we had so far this month:

- We added so far 414 new members to the group (We started with 581 members on April 1)
- We're planting a new tree for each new member until we reach the 1000th member, so we're having so far 414 new trees that will be planted with our planting partners on behalf of the new members.
- We had giveaways of 26 books of authors and publishers we work with , including Green Beginning by Avrim and Vicki Topel, Sammy and Sue Go Green Too! by Suzanne Corso, Little Green Books (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing), The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales by Dawn Casey and Gardening Eden by Michael Abbaté

So we're now on the last day and we hope to finish this green celebration with at least 5 more new members and 5 new trees that will be planted on their behalf.

And in celebration of the successful ending of this campaign, we're giving away today a very special gift - a new book by author Fiona Robyn that is only due to be published (by Snowbooks) on August 2009!

The author, who is collaborating with Eco-Libris, donated one copy of "The Blue Handbag", which will also be signed by her!

Here are some more details on the book:

After forty years of happy marriage, Leonard thought he knew his wife Rose as well as he knew himself. It's only after her sudden death that he finds her old handbag, which contains a mystery he can't ignore. Accompanied by Lily, his wife's childhood friend, Leonard becomes a reluctant detective as his whole life starts to unravel... 'The Blue Handbag' is steeped in a quiet poetry which reminds us to take pleasure from the ordinary details of life - reading stories to our children, sharing silence with our friend over a beer, enjoying the plants Leonard tends for a living - and never to take anything for granted.

You can read more about it at www.fionarobyn.com/thebluehandbag.htm.

Thanks again to all the participants in our campaign and all of our supporters and fans that helped us running this campaign.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Kudos to Philly! The city plans to become the greenest city in the U.S. by 2015

Philadelphia is the nearest big city to Newark, DE where Eco-Libris is headquartered and we love this great city. We're also a proud member of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN).

All of this introduction is just to explain why we're so happy to hear today that Philly is aspiring to become greenest city in the U.S. by 2015.

Yep, it's true. Mayor Michael Nutter announced today the plan in a speech at the Franklin Institute. The plan entitled 'GreenWorks Philadelphia' is a comprehensive plan to make Philadelphia the greenest city in the United States by 2015. It includes more than 150 initiatives and sets goals in five areas — energy, environment, equity, economy and engagement — all designed to help create jobs in the emerging green economy and reduce the city’s environmental footprint.

"We've put out a plan that is aggressive, achievable and measurable," said Nutter. "The green economy is a pathway to the future. We [Philadelphia] were known for innovation many years ago and now we are reinventing ourselves."

According to the Environmental Leader, key target goals of Greenworks Philadelphia include:

• Decrease city government energy consumption by 30 percent
• Reduce energy consumption in buildings citywide by 10 percent
• Retrofit 15 percent of housing with insulation, air sealing, and cool roofs
• Purchase and generate 20 percent of electricity from alternative energy sources
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent
• Improve air quality toward attainment of federal standards
• Divert 70 percent of solid waste from landfill
• Manage storm water to meet federal standards
• Provide park and recreation resources within 10 minutes of 75 percent of residents
• Offer local food within 10 minutes of 75 percent of residents
• Boost tree coverage toward 30 percent in all neighborhoods in 2025
• Reduce vehicle miles traveled by 10 percent
• Increase the “State of Good Repair” of city infrastructure
• Double the number of low- and high-skill green jobs to 28,8000

This is great news and we are positive that with the leadership of Mark Alan Hughes who runs the Mayor's Office of Sustainability (MOS) and is the person responsible to the implementation of this plan, GreenWorks Philadelphia will not only meet its goals but will also inspire other cities to follow suit.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Aaspirations Publishing believes recession is the time to expand and opens an office in India

Eco-Libris is a proud partner of Aaspirations Publishing, a green publisher of Toronto, Canada that is opening now a second office in India!

We're collaborating with Aaspriations Publishing to plant a tree is for every copy of their new titles, which will also carry our logo ‘One tree planted for every book’. We have planted so far trees for great books such as "The Micro Meanies" by Lynda Anderson and "Where the Buttercups Grow" by Shelley Meyer.

Aaspirations Publishing is reporting that a close association is planned between the two offices to nurture and bring talent to the forefront and enable increasing book sales in both countries through co-publishing deals.

The first three books to be launched in India will be The Micro Meanies by Lynda Anderson and Melanie Bennett and The Haven Spear by Nick Mucci.

Both the books are part of a brand, with multi-title series and the possibilities for merchandising and more. 'I see a closer connection between books and movies, merchandising and music, and between different countries as talent abounds and gets an outlet to expand,' says publisher Anjali Sondhi.

More details on Aaspirations Publishing and their books is available at http://www.aaspirationspublishing.com

This is great news and we wish Aaspirations Publishing a great success with their move!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net