Holiday Book Sales To Benefit Local Non-Profits

Holiday shoppers have the opportunity to give a gift to local schools through Barnes & Noble.

Shoppers can purchase a book at select Barnes & Noble stores and donate it to a school as part of the annual Holiday Book Drive, which runs through Jan. 1. City National Bank will make each donation go even farther during the month of December. City National's Reading is The way up literacy program will match each book donated in December, up to $75,000.

Barnes & Noble in the Town Center is celebrating with a Book Fair, Dec. 1-9, featuring two special events for the whole family. Join Brandi Dougherty, author of The Littlest Elf, for storytime on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 11 a.m. Drop by in your pajamas if you like on Friday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. for a bedtime story featuring The Polar Express.

Donations from Barnes & Noble in Corte Madera will benefit Center Point, Inc. and San Francisco's Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center.

Center Point on its website declares it "provides comprehensive, evidence-based services for homeless individuals, veterans, substance users, women with children, families, adolescents, those who are unemployed and those involved with the criminal justice system."

The Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center offers preschool and after-school programs, as well as a senior citizen program.

"We always look forward to this time of year and partnering with Barnes & Noble on our holiday book drive program," said Carolyn Rodriguez, head of Reading is The way up at City National Bank. "With this being the 10th anniversary of our literacy program, we have increased our monetary support for this year's book drive. City National understands that literacy and a child's education are some of the best investments you can make in life."

The Reading is the Way Up program has donated more than 115,000 books to school libraries in California, New York and Nevada, Nashville and Atlanta in the past decade. It has also awarded more than $500,000 to teachers at elementary, middle and high schools for creative literacy projects, according to representatives.

Seventeen Barnes & Noble book stores in California, Nevada, New York, Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia, are participating in the fifth annual holiday book drive. Bay Area stores include: Corte Madera, San Jose and Walnut Creek.

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