NZ Book Month 2012 is out to build on success

Vouchers easier to access, super heroes abound: NZ Book Month 2012 is out to build on success.

$ 4.3 million book vouchers will be in letterboxes and at your Caltex Station in March for NZ Book Month 2012. No one will be left out – if all else fails, book buyers can head for the computer to print off their own voucher.

That’s just one of the building-on-success opportunities available in 2012.

And Creative New Zealand has made community grant funding available to hold at least 50 book/author events throughout the country, another key part of NZ Book Month’s community outreach.

Annabel Langbein (pictured right) is the new celebrity reading role model who joins noted film maker Sir Peter Jackson as one of the two named so far.

Bestselling cookbook author Annabel says she is delighted to be part of NZ Book Month. “The more time I spend promoting my books overseas the more I realise that the books we produce here in New Zealand are the equal of those from anywhere else on the planet.

"It's important to take this time to celebrate the richness they bring to our world,” she believes.

Booksellers New Zealand’s Project Manager Megan Dunn was delighted the popular Annabel will be a face of NZ Book Month. “Annabel’s involvement will highlight the diversity of New Zealand book genres,” she believes.

The Caltex Energy for Learning project last year asked school children to name their reading super heroes, with the touching results you can see as quotes throughout this feature. This will be re-invented for 2012 asking kids for the other reading super heroes in their lives, including family members.

IMAGE: reading superheroes

"Wanna know who my reading hero is? It is... It is... aaah I don’t know? Wait... I know, Ms Y! She has like kazillion freakles, redish hair, two big googly eyes and a huge smile. Plus she likes to wear earings. It is so amazing when she reads, it always paints a picture in my head. She is the person who has encouraged me to read and take books out of the library." (student comment about reading)

The popular Read Aloud brochure will be refreshed, and again because of popular demand, will also be available in te reo Maori and Pasifika languages.

Printlink are again generously supplying the vouchers for NZ Book Month.

"I will never forget Mrs Z she taught me an invaluable lesson. I learnt that half the beauty, half the delight of reading is the magic of trying something new." (student comment about reading)

Megan Dunn (pictured left) says that the focus for 2012 will be continuity and growing the overall campaign which changed its emphasis in 2011 to reach out and positively engage Kiwis with the $5 discount voucher strategy.

With that in mind, Megan says the central message will stay the same. “It will still be BOOKS CHANGE LIVES,” she says.

In 2012 the promotion will also have some administrative help - Booksellers NZ will operate as a clearing house for independent booksellers. This will cut down on the workload for Indie stores when it comes time to processing the floods of redeemed vouchers!

In 2011 nearly 100,000 vouchers were redeemed throughout New Zealand making Book Month the biggest, most tangible offer ever to get Kiwi’s reading.

"I utterly despised reading in any form, be it fiction or non-fiction; illustrated or not. In a year my teacher did what my 10 year old self would have thought impossible; transformed me into a reading junkie who always had a new book." (student comment about reading)

In 2011, the NZ Book Month promotion certainly brightened the book trade at a critical time. Booksellers and publishers bravely stuck their necks out to share the cost of redeeming the vouchers on a 50/50 basis and were delighted with the increased visibility of books and purchases that resulted. Enthusiasts saw business growth that exceeded expectations. Even those reluctant to participate soon changed their minds as the effects became obvious.

There will certainly be a huge buy in for the promotion from all parts of the trade for NZ Book Month 2012. The public, who have now experienced the direct financial benefits of NZ Book Month vouchers (and lost their cynicism of it being a ‘too good to be true’ offer), will be poised to surge into book stores next March.

So everything will be invigorated with energy and shined up for a second amazing NZ Book Month!

And more from the kids, complete with original spelling:

"She always takes us to the library and helps us look for the right book and doesn’t pressure us into reading big fat books that we don’t understand."

"Mr X is my reading hero because when he reads he puts expression into it so he reads very loud drowns anything out near him. He is pashonate when it comes to Maori books he reads at the top of his lungs. When he reads Maori books sometimes it sounds like he'll explode into little mirco peaces."

"Mrs Z made me librarian monitor, and I loved helping and encouraging younger kids to read, just like she did. Mrs Z encouraged more kids to come to Book Club by bring along snacks to share and once people started coming they didn't stop, snacks or no snacks (told you she had powers)."

By Jillian Ewart, writer for The Read