For those of you who didn’t know, LL actually wrote a unique children’s book. A “rap and read” book – to give children 4 to 10 years old some lessons about humility and sportsmanship.

The book is part of a series for Scholastic called Hip Kid Hop. The children’s book-and-CD series features hip hop stars like Doug E. Fresh, Common, and Shaggy.

The 32-page picture book by LL Cool J, whose real name is James Todd Smith, is packaged with an original two-track CD that includes a song version of the story performed by the rapper himself. The book also has a music-only track so that the children can read and rap along on their own.

The rapper/actor said he was looking for a way to influence kids in a positive way: “I just think there’s room for something that’s positive in hip hop and someone had to have the courage and say, ‘I care about the kids.’”

Milk + Bookies^TM is a nationwide charitable organization that inspires children to give back, using books as its currency.

Mr. Black also lent his vocal talents to help bring together some of our most beloved literary characters to rally people behind the Book People Unite movement and help get books in the hands of kids who need them the most. Watch the video here.

We have chosen Chris “Ludacris” Bridges as this month’s Leader of the month.

At the heart of Ludacris’ values is his commitment to give back. Atlanta-based and impacting globally, The Ludacris Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization that serves as Ludacris’ vision to help youth help themselves. They value authenticity and have a passion for what they do and the people who they serve. Their programs are rooted in the principals that Chris “ Ludacris” Bridges learned as a youth and practices today: spirituality, communication, education, leadership, goal setting, physical activity and community service. Ludacris and The Ludacris Foundation is a  hands-on organization.  They take its programs to the streets, neighborhoods and communities.

The Ludacris Foundation inspires youth through education and memorable experiences to live their dreams.  The goals of their programs are to uplift families, communities and foster economic development. The Ludacris Foundation three key focus areas are: LudaCares, Leadership & Education and Lifestyles. Our efforts reach youth at all age levels.
Founded in 2001 by multi-platinum selling, GRAMMY® award winning artist and actor, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, TLF has achieved notable success. TLF has been named as one of the top twenty “Leading Philanthropy Foundations” by Black Enterprise magazine and featured in The Robb Report’s Worth magazine as well as The Chronicles of Philanthropy – a Newspaper of the Non-Profit World for outstanding efforts provided to urban communities.

Thank you to Ludacris and The Ludacris Foundation for their efforts to help struggling youth become strong and educated young men and women by giving them the tools they need to succeed.

Lisa Riebe has an active imagination and it has served her well. Riebe is the creative force behind The Remarkable Adventures of Pond Punkies, a sci-fi book series introduced in 2009 with The Arrival. Book two, The Unearthing was released in 2011, and book three, The Departure was recently released June of 2012.

Pond Punkies started with the simple idea of creating a toy that her son and other young people would enjoy playing. She’s always been an inventor; she has an entire folder full of concepts.
One day she was sitting near her backyard pond when the idea of developing a super hero came to her. The plan was to relate the character to ponds and thus Pond Punkies came to be.
Before Riebe could begin to market an action figure, which she had commissioned, she needed to introduce the characters and decided the way to do that was through a series of stories.
The Arrival served to introduce Young Blaze, a super hero from the planet Neptune who uncovers a secret plot to destroy his home.

The introductory book, now in its second printing, was selected as a finalist in the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for children’s/juvenile fiction and a Global eBook Award Winner.
Inspired by a struggling reader, Riebe kept that in mind when writing Pond Punkies. “Young readers are often reluctant to read because of how many words they see on the page. Intimidation sets in and they close the book. That’s where this series is a little different,” Riebe said.
The font in her books is large, with extra spacing between lines, and each edition includes up to 18 pages of illustrations by Laurence Knighton.

Being an independent publisher/author has not always been a bed of roses for Lisa. She joined the Independent Book Publishing Association and Association of Independent Authors to guide her through the intricacies of publishing. After eight years of researching and a lot of compromising, Pond Punkies were finally in print. Through her efforts, she was able to get her book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble.

Now that Lisa has the books, along with a prototype of the action figure, she has been going on school visits and speaking at reading conferences. This year, she said, is the year she is making her dreams come true.

You can connect with Lisa on her website, www.pondpunkies.com or facebook.

It is quite clear that politics is her area of expertise. So why is she our Leader of the Month? It is plain and simple. She reads…A LOT! Unlike most of our Leaders of the Month who enjoy reading books, Nancy Pelosi enjoys reading newspapers and magazines.

When it comes to consuming news, she is an insatiable beast. She is an insatiable newspaper reader, and now, of course, electronically, she has more opportunity. The Atlantic Wire took the time to interview Pelosi about her avid reading. Click the link below to view it for yourself!

We want to thank Nancy Pelosi for setting a good example for fellow young readers and future politicians!

To read the interview by The Atlantic Wire click here.

Bill Martin lived the last 11 years of his life in the east Texas woods near Commerce, Texas. A Kansas native, Bill graduated with a teaching certificate from Emporia State University. He taught in Kansas and was an elementary school principal in Chicago before he moved to New York City in 1961 to work for Holt, Rinehart and Winston, where he developed the literature-based reading programs Sounds of Language and The Instant Readers. Seven years later, Bill left Holt and launched his career as a writer of children’s book and as a consultant to teachers. He lived in New York until 1993, when he moved to Texas.

Through the years he gave children some of their favorite books, including Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? (also illustrated by Eric Carle) The Ghost-Eye Tree, Barn Dance, Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom and many more. His classic work, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, now in board book form, is at the top of the Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller list. His basketball thriller, SWISH, co-authored with Michael Sampson, is an exciting basketball tale, written in classic Martin Rhyme\Rhythm style, that features girls’ basketball. Six new Martin/Sampson book are now available: (Rock It, Sock It, Number Line; The Little Squeegy Bug, Trick or Treat?, Caddie the Golf Dog, I Pledge Allegiance, Chicka, Chicka 1,2.4! and Little Granny Quarterback. Read them today! A new vesion of Chicken Chuck came out in 2005, and I Love our Earth was published in 2006. Other Martin books that he completed before his death will continue to be released in the years to come.

References: http://billmartinjr.com/bill_martin

View the LeBron and Literacy video here.

LeBron James is our Leader of the Month! You may have seen a lot of LeBron James recently, especially after just grabbing hold of his first NBA Championship title. What you didn’t know is that literacy plays a big part in LeBron James’ routine.

Miami Heat star LeBron James had a somewhat surprising practice that he used to focus before games, including during the final series in which he led his team to the National Basketball Association championship: He read books.

James, who went from high school straight into the National Basketball Association, bypassing college, was seen before and even after games reading one book after another, one genre after another.

There was “The Hunger Games,” and the other books in the science fiction trilogy by Suzanne Collins. There were, according to ESPN, books on history, biographies, psychology and more. He read sitting in front of his locker “The Pact,” about three boys from tough backgrounds deciding to go to college and then medical school.

According to this story by ESPN’s by Michael Wilbon (who used to be a colleague of mine at The Washington Post), James decided that he could focus on his game better if he spent some time alone reading, so he called up his friend and business associate, Maverick Carter, and asked for some book suggestions.

Read To Lead wants to thank LeBron James for setting a good example for young readers around the world! Thanks!

References:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-lebron-james-focused-for-games-reading-books-tell-the-kids/2012/06/22/gJQAFVPMuV_blog.html

By the time Mary-Kate and Ashley were 9 months old in 1987, they had joined the TV show “Full House” in which the twins played the role of Michelle Tanner. In 1990, the Mary-Kate and Ashley books were launched, and are still a huge success today, often listed as bestsellers in USA Today. In 1995, the companion book series to their Adventures videos began to be released under the title Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley.

Mary-Kate and Ashley are famous for their ”Two of A Kind” television series as well as their “So Little Time” series. With each TV series, the twins also produced companion book series under the same titles — Two Of A Kind and So Little Time.

The twins opened their own production company, Dualstar, which has made them the youngest producers in Hollywood. In 2001, the girls had started their own fashion and accessories line. And in 2002 when the twins turned 16, they launched the Sweet Sixteen book series.

Today, Mary-Kate and Ashley are excited to launch their latest books based on their major motion picture release, New York Minute.

Review Titles Below from the Mary-Kate and Ashley Book Series!

• In Action
• New Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley
• Two of a Kind
• So Little Time
• Sweet Sixteen

Click here to read Mary-Kate & Ashley’s interview with RIF!

References: http://www.rif.org/kids/readingplanet/expressyourself/olsens.htm

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, Sendak was a frail and sickly child. Spending much of his young life indoors, he turned to books at an early age. His view of the outside world was often limited to the family that came to visit him and the little that he could see from his window. It was during this time that he began to draw and to allow his imagination to run free. At age twelve, he went with his family to see Walt Disney’s FANTASIA. This animated world, constructed completely of invented characters and fantasy, had a great influence on him.

Throughout high school, Sendak continued to draw, and after graduating, published a handful of illustrations in the textbook ATOMICS FOR THE MILLIONS. In 1948, he began working for F.A.O. Schwartz as a window dresser and continued there for four years while taking night classes at the New York Art Students League. After finding work illustrating Marcel Ayme’s THE WONDERFUL FARM and Ruth Krauss’s A HOLE IS TO DIG, Sendak left F.A.O. Schwartz to become a full-time, freelance children’s book illustrator.

Throughout the 1950s, Sendak worked regularly, producing nearly fifty illustrated children’s books. He saw in book illustration the opportunity to expand the imaginary world of the reader. While many illustrators had concentrated on clarifying the images in the text, Sendak believed that an illustration should add to the mystery of the work. His oddly grotesque characters seemed strangely inviting in their imperfections. Unlike much of the Disney cartoons and the illustration that followed it, Sendak’s artistic imagery brought a self-conscious attention to its origin and its maker.

By the early 1960s, Sendak had already gained a following as one of the more expressive and interesting illustrators in the business. In 1963, his book, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, brought him international acclaim and a place among the world’s great illustrators. For this project, Sendak worked as both the illustrator and the writer. It is the story of a young boy named Max, who is sent to his room only to find his imagination has created a new world there, populated by wild geographies and monsters of all kinds. Initially, its graphic portrayal of the toothy wild things concerned parents, but before long it was a favorite among children everywhere, having been translated into fifteen languages and selling more than two million copies.

Over the following years, Sendak created dozens of popular children’s books including one of his best known, IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN (1970). In the late 1970s, Sendak turned his attention to other forms. While continuing to write and illustrate, Sendak began producing and designing performances. Incorporating much of the same imaginative design that had made his books so popular, Sendak put on a number of operas, including Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and Prokofiev’s “Love for Three Oranges”. In 1979, he turned his book, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE into a popular opera, and four years later designed a winning production of Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker”.

Throughout the past fifty years, Maurice Sendak has been one of the most consistently inventive and challenging voices in children’s literature. His books and productions are among the best-loved imaginative works of their time. Like the Grimm brothers before him, Sendak has created a body of work both entertaining and educational, which will continue to be popular for generations.

References: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/maurice-sendak/about-maurice-sendak/701/

James Patterson has written so many books, he’s lost track of the exact number. Ask him how many novels he’s penned for 2012 alone and he shrugs, then guesses: “Twelve or 13?”

Often derided as a “factory” for being so prolific, Patterson has written more than 70 novels and sold more than 260 million copies — far more than any living writer. And at 65, he shows no sign of easing up. If anything, his pace seems to be quickening, especially with children’s books, which he began writing in 2007 after more than 30 years of producing adult thrillers.

This year has already brought new installments of his bestselling children’s series, “Witch & Wizard” and “Middle School.” In August, he’ll publish the eighth and final book in “Maximum Ride,” which has spent 128 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. But that isn’t all. Before the year is out, he’ll launch two entirely new series for kids, the illustrated middle-grade reader “I Funny,” about a wheelchair-bound, wannabe stand-up comic, and “Confessions of a Murder Suspect” for young adults, centering around a girl accused of her parents’ murder.

All five children’s book franchises are in various stages of development for film and TV.

“The best stuff I do are the kids’ books,” said Patterson.

Patterson isn’t only a novelist. He’s an evangelist for reading who believes in the power of books to improve the school experience and transform kids into better citizens leading quality lives. He founded the ReadKiddoRead website to offer book suggestions and reading tips to parents and educators. He gives away thousands of educational and college-book scholarships to university students each year and donates countless books.

Last week, every high school and middle school in the L.A. Unified School District received books from Patterson, including Venice High School, which scored 800 copies of “Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment” and a guest appearance by the author, who introduced himself to the audience as Stephen King. As a speaker, Patterson demonstrated the same strategy he employs with his books — continuously surprising and relating to his audience to keep them interested. He admitted it took him a while to get into Shakespeare. He told them how he grew up poor and was never given a single book to read by his parents but now makes $90 million a year.

Part back story, part inspirational talk, his prepared speech was only 10 minutes but yielded a lifetime of wisdom, encouraging the students to dream big (but also have a backup dream), to keep their brains open and, most importantly, to find cool books and read for fun.

References: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-james-patterson-20120528,0,7278092.story