Those of you who have a copy of Hanni And Beth: Safe & Sound on your bookshelf should pat yourself on the back. Not only do you recognize literary genius when you see it, but your purchase is helping create more Braille books for children.

Blue Marlin Publications donates a portion of the proceeds from sales of Safe & Sound to Seedlings Braille Books for Children, a small non-profit organization in Michigan providing high quality, low cost Braille books for children. Safe & Sound hasn’t been out a year yet, and already Blue Marlin Publications has donated TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS to Seedlings.

A little known fact about Braille: fewer than 20% of the 50,000 blind children in the United States are proficient in Braille. All too often, the “written word” has been inaccessible to kids who are blind. They listen to audio books instead, or hear words from a computer screen equipped with a screen reader. Technology is cool, but how will these children ever learn to spell correctly? How will they know where to put commas, quotation marks, paragraph breaks and so on? By producing Braille books for children, Seedlings helps promote “literacy for the blind,” providing visually impaired children equal opportunity to develop a love of reading. Safe & Sound is one of the books available in Braille from Seedlings, which means I’ve been able to read parts of the book aloud at the presentations I’ve been doing since last October.

To find out how to order a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound in Braille, or to donate to Seedlings to help them create more books in Braille for kids, link to www.seedlings.org. Every ten dollar donation makes another Braille book possible.

But wait! There’s more! This week you’ll have yet another way to help Seedlings Braille Books for Children. This Saturday, September 20, 2008 is Macy’s <Shop for a Cause day. Here’s how it works: you purchase a $5 shopping pass from Seedlings ahead of time and use the card to “Shop for a Cause” at any Macy’s nationwide on September 20. Seedlings retains all proceeds from the sale of shopping passes, and you get special discounts — everyone who buys a shopping pass will be entitled to receive 20% off regular, sale and clearance prices in apparel, accessories, jewelry and housewares and 10% off regular, sale and clearance furniture, mattresses & rugs (some exclusions do apply). Remember, though: the shopping pass you get from Seedlings can only be used on Saturday, September 20, 2008.

Seedlings Braille Books for Children is dedicated to providing high quality, low-cost Braille books for blind children. Thanks to you, they’ve placed hundreds of new Braille books into the waiting hands of children who read by touch.

To purchase a Macy’s shopping pass for $5 each, call Julie or Dawn at Seedlings: 734-427-8552 or 800-777-8552. You may also send a check or money order to Seedlings at 14151 Farmington Road, Livonia, MI 48154.
Include your name, address, and phone number, and a Macy’s shopping pass will be mailed directly to you.

  The Braille version of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” is here! I received my advance copy in the mail today! That means the “real deal” should be available to blind readers on October 15th, the same day the print edition will officially be released. This is very, very unusual.

Braille is so expensive to publish that “braile presses” usually wait until a book becomes a best-seller before putting it out in Braille. But here it is, already in my dirty little hands.

Okay, that’s a joke. I washed my hands before touching the new book.

The book is in a Print-and-Braille format. The contracted braille and print match line for line, with the print just above the Braille (no pictures).
I can tell you first hand, so to speak, that it’s “good Braille” = the dots are stiff, they stand up straight, They’re easy to read.

A little known fact about Braille: less than 20% of the 50,000 blind children in the United States are proficient in Braille. All too often, the “written word” has been inaccessible to kids who are blind, far easier for them to listen to books on audio or hear words on a computer screen equipped with a screen reader. Technology is cool, but how will these children ever learn to spell correctly? How will they know where to put commas, quotation marks, paragraph breaks and so on?

My children’s book publisher, Blue Marlin Publications, teamed up with Seedlings Braille Books for Children, a non-profit organization in Michigan that creates Braille books for kids who can’t see. Blue Marlin didn’t charge Seedlings a penny for the rights to publish the book in Braille.

Not only that, but Blue Marlin Publications is donating a portion of the sales of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound to Seedlings so they can continue creating books in Braille for kids who need them. By producing Braille books for children, Seedlings helps promote “literacy for the blind,” providing visually impaired children equal opportunity to develop a love of reading.

With Safe & Sound available in Braille, I’ll be able to read it aloud at my presentations, too.

To find out how to order a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound in Braille, or to donate to Seedlings to help them create more books in Braille for kids, link to www.seedlings.org.