Karol Ruth Silverstein’s debut YA novel, Cursed, won the 2021 ALA Schneider Family Book Award for best representation of the disability experience. To celebrate the book coming out in paperback in July 2021, Karol has launched “Help Kids Get Cursed (*the book) – July 2021 Book Drive” I interviewed my friend to find out more, and to share how others can use this ‘it’s not about me, it’s about the kid readers’ strategy.

Here’s our interview…

Karol: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then you, my friend, are definitely in danger of getting a big head. I basically “borrowed” my idea of doing a book drive to get donated copies of Cursed into the hands of kids who need the book most directly from YOU. You did this with both of your books, and the thought process behind it always seemed to start with, “What would it have meant to my younger self to have a book like this?” I was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis at 13 but didn’t meet another young person with arthritis until I was 21. And I certainly didn’t see any representation in books, movies or TV shows. Much of the time, I felt utterly alone—like literally no one in the world understood what I was going through.

Lee: That feeling – like you’re the only one in the world who feels the way you do – is so strangely universal. I completely felt that way about being gay (which fueled my debut, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill. And maybe part of the idea of focusing on promoting a book drive for kid readers is our own discomfort with being that ego-driven author – help me, buy my book – I’m actually squinting and making a face as I type that! The book drive is a way to talk about our book and make it about empowering young readers, which just feels better. Tell us about what you’ve set up for Cursed.

Karol: Absolutely! I realized I needed to start by finding an organization to work with that would be willing and able to get the donated books distributed to kids. You really can’t hold a book drive without that “last leg of the relay” in place. You warned me this might be the toughest part and, yet again, you were correct! The most natural place to start was The Arthritis Foundation since both my main character, Ricky, and I have juvenile arthritis. I’d done volunteer work for the Southern CA Chapter back in the 90s but discovered that there’s been a lot of reorganizing and downsizing since then. Plus, both the annual juvenile arthritis conference and summer camp for kids with arthritis were going to be virtual this year. So – surprisingly and somewhat disappointingly – The Arthritis Foundation was a dead end. I had to cast a wider net, look at organizations that served kids with different types of chronic illnesses and disabilities, and eventually I found an enthusiastic partner in CoachArt. Their mission, as stated on their website, is “to create a transformative arts and athletics community for families impacted by childhood chronic illness.” They were holding two tracks of a book club that ended June 30 and July 1, and I was invited to be a guest speaker at the final session for both tracks. SO fun! My book drive runs throughout July and CoachArt will distribute the donated books in August. It was a relief to finally get this essential part of the puzzle in place. Why do you think this is the hardest part of doing a book drive?

Lee: Maybe it wouldn’t be for books that don’t have any controversial elements, but both our books have a sort of “baked-in” element that might be seen as controversial – my newest book, No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves looks at primary source evidence that some of the most famous people in history were men who loved men and women who loved women – including William Shakespeare, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Queen Anne… And for your Cursed, there’s well, quite a bit of cursing that Ricky does as she’s dealing with being in pain (both physically and emotionally) – F-bombs are tricky things, and I think by their nature really large nonprofits are maybe anxious about being called out about anything that might be controversial for them… even when it’s clearly something that would benefit the kids they’re focused on helping.

We both ended up with smaller, more local organizations who don’t rely on federal funding – at least I’m sure of that for Brave Trails, the LGBTQ youth leadership nonprofit I teamed up with for both book drives. Maybe they’re braver…

Karol: Yes, perhaps they are. I disclosed the cursing in Cursed to my CoachArt contact and then held my breath. But she quickly said she didn’t see it as an issue and would simply disclose the language to the parents, allowing them to opt out if they chose to. So…once I had this piece in place, my next step was to find a local bookstore that wanted to participate, with the idea that the bookstore would field all of the orders and then I pick up the donated books at the end of the book drive. I much prefer connecting the drive to a local independent store vs, the publisher’s website or {shudder} Amazon as I am All About supporting indies. My go-to local bookstore, Children’s Book World in West Los Angeles, was thrilled to join forces. They’ve been incredibly supportive of Cursed from the start. One thing I learned from participating in your most recent book drive is to give specific ordering instructions, namely to select “store pick up” and to mention the book drive under order comments. I’m hoping that helps avoid any confusion with ordering.

The next step was getting the word out there which, in addition to creating a page for the book drive with all the pertinent info, meant…marketing. Every writer’s favorite thing (not!). You shared some really helpful hints about focusing on what the donated books would mean to readers. I’ll let you elaborate on that since you’re the genius mastermind behind kidlit book drives (in my book anyway)…

Lee: Thanks, Karol. I’ll pass “genius mastermind” along to people like Paula Yoo, who organized a book drive for LGBTQ youth in Orlando following the Pulse nightclub murders, and to the many kidlit folks who have created book drives for a cause, like repopulating a destroyed or underfunded library’s shelves. I guess what feels different is the idea that for an author/creator’s specific book, there’s a way to harness all that goodwill that takes the focus off us and puts it onto the readers.

With works like ours, which are the books that would have changed our lives completely if we’d read them as teens, there’s a foundation of empowerment to the book existing in the first place. Tapping into that and making the call focused on empowering those young people today feels like a more altruistic approach than “it’s my book launch – please buy my book because I want a lot of copies to sell!” Of course, yes, we all want a lot of copies to sell, but what we really want is for a lot of young readers to find themselves – and hope – in the pages of our books!

Karol: SO well said! And I officially bestow the “genius mastermind” moniker on you in terms of book drives focused on a particular book that particular kids could really benefit from…in particular. Ahem. You suggested I find readers to specifically weigh in on what the book would have meant to them if a book like Cursed had been available when they were kids. I lined up some folks who dealt with chronic illness as kids to weigh in, either on video or with a quote. I also expanded the ask to those who didn’t have chronic illnesses themselves but who really appreciated gaining a deeper understanding of loved ones who did.

In terms of how to get the word out about the book drive, you gave me a few great tips:

· Always think in terms of adding value with my posts.
· Plan out posts ahead of time so they’re varied and spread out.
· Update followers on how the book drive’s going about half way through.

Lee: And when you asked, I was really honored to give you a quote as well.

Karol: My book drive officially launched at the beginning of July. I’m excited but have no idea what to expect in terms of numbers and ultimate impact. Can you share a little about how your own book drives for Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill and No Way They Were Gay… went? Were the bookstore and organization you partnered with pleased with the results? Did you hear back from any teens who received your books?

Lee: The book drive for Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill was baked into the publication, as the whole thing was crowdfunded and then published as professionally as I could with a team of people… but with me as the author publisher. (Note I didn’t say ‘self-published,’ because if you’re doing it right, you’re not doing it all yourself.) So getting the project funded on Kickstarter meant that 400 copies would be donated – ultimately we raised enough money to give away over 900 copies! Brave Trails was amazing, and we gave out copies to every camper in 2019, and gave out hundreds of copies at events like Models of Pride. It was heady, and so exciting. For a year, the screen saver on my phone was the book in a teenager’s hands. They were clutching it so tight, with so much enthusiasm and joy, that this would be their book – I asked permission to just photograph their hands and the book (to respect their privacy) and I really cherished that reminder that the book has meaning for young readers.

The book drive for No Way, They Were Gay? was really different. The book’s published by Lerner (under their Zest Books imprint) and so the book drive became a co-production between my local indie bookstore Pages: A Bookstore in Manhattan Beach, the publisher, my community, and me. I donated 18 of my 25 author copies. The publisher donated 20 copies. And then the community purchased 33 copies to donate, beyond the copies people purchased themselves. These were sort of ‘bonus’ retail purchases that helped the bookstore (they were really pleased) and the 71 books will be delivered next week to Brave Trails. They’re going to do a book club, and I’m so grateful these copies will find their young readers!

One thing you’re trying that’s new to this idea is a giveaway to a participant. Tell us about that!

Karol: Yes! …Because who doesn’t love a giveaway?! I 100% know people would participate without there being a giveaway, but I thought it’d be fun. Plus, I ordered these super-cool Cursed mugs for holidays gifts to friends, family and supporters last year, and I have one mug left. So one lucky participant in the book drive will not only get a signed book and some Cursed swag but the final mug as well.

Lee: I know I love my mug! Karol, thanks so much for sharing about your Cursed book drive! I hope it gets a lot of copies of your amazing book into the hands of kids for whom it will mean so much.

You can purchase a copy of ‘Cursed’ to donate to young readers here.