April RIF of NOVA News! Spring Forward -- to BOOKS!

April 2025

A Special Guest at ACCA!

Fairfax County's Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez was a guest reader at the ACCA spring book distribution. The interactions were priceless about animals and colors as Supervisor Jimenez read The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle to assembled three- and four-year-olds!

ACCA is one of four RIF NOVA-supported schools and sites in Mason District. Such a treat to have this important guest during a special book distribution day. Each child was able to choose TWO books for keeps, thanks to a national RIF/RIF NOVA matching grant! As he picked his two books, one child said, wow, then wow, and then WOW again! There was an egg hunt, too, where the "egg-citement" was over the top!!!! More pics are here!

Upcoming Special Events to Support RIF NOVA!

Mark your calendars for April 23 to do good and have fun at the same time to benefit RIF NOVA! Where? Kendra Scott in the Fairfax Mosaic District, 5:00 to 7:00 pm. 20% of all sales go to RIF NOVA to provide books for deserving NOVA children. Can't be there in person? Shop online April 23-24 at: Kendrascott.com and use code GIVEBACK-JBQEI at checkout.

RIF NOVA will once again have a booth at Fairfax County's Earth Day celebration -- complete with donated (recycled!) board book giveaways for little attendees and a fund-raising raffle with several baskets of new books, ripe for taking a chance. Clifford the Big Red Dog will be there to charm everyone! When and where: Saturday, April 26 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 pm at Sulley Historic Site, 3650 Historic Sully Way, Chantilly, VA. Admission is FREE; Parking is $10 per car at the gate. Fun for all ages!

Looking Way Ahead!

Mark your calendars! Our 2025 fun- and fundraiser has a date! Book It For Books will take place October 25 at Lake Accotink Park in Fairfax County. And this year, a 10K option has been added! Additional details to follow, but please add this to your calendars now! You'll want to be part of the action as a sponsor or runner/walker to help provide needed books and literacy activity programming for area children. RIF NOVA is an all-volunteer nonprofit, totally supported by our community! Please become a supporter, too!

Encore Author Performances!

RIF NOVA's Authors in Our Schools program saw participation by three authors who have presented before -- Patricia Tanumihardja, Fred Bowen, and Hanh Bui -- and, once again, they engaged their young audiences with fun and good advice about reading and writing! For details on these and other author visits to date, please click here!

Yorkshire Elementary School in Prince William County rolled out the red carpet on March 21 for Pat Tanumihardja as first and second graders listened to her book Ramen for Everyone. When she asked the young Bulldogs who likes ramen, hands went up pretty much universally! When students learned they would each receive an autographed copy of the author's book, a collective -- and very energetic -- Yayyyyyyy! went up throughout the room! One student wrote the author a letter saying, "Your book is the best!" -- with a big heart!

Sixth graders at Kenmore Middle School were treated to an animated discussion about sports, writing, and book idea generation with sports book author Fred Bowen. During a March session in the auditorium, the author told students that writing is fun and outlined some ideas about how to get started. At a writer's workshop in the library, students were full of questions about book publishing and shared ideas about the kinds of books they might like to write in the future! This event was supported with funding from the Arlington Community Foundation's 2024 Wish List.

During a visit to PWC's Dumfries Elementary School on April 11, Hanh Bui featured her second book, Ánh's New Word, to an audience of first and second graders. The children helped to act out the story as Ms. Bui read about the book's character, little Ánh, who learned her first English word from the knitting on a sweater she wore. Before the visit, students wrote letters to the author, hoping to be chosen for a special conversation with her over lunch. Each child received an autographed book to take home for keeps.

Book Distribution Updates

Just before spring break, it was a very busy time for book distributions throughout the RIF NOVA community. ACCA's distribution was noted above, and more are featured below and on our website at these two links: Books for Keeps and STEAM It Up!

"It's No Joke" at Innovation!

April 1 was the first day of a four-day book distribution -- "It’s No Joke…We Love a Good Book!" -- at Innovation Elementary in Prince William County. There, liaisons Donna Garzione (l) and Gina Centamore (r) welcomed classes as they sat down for a quick talk about April Fool’s Day, its origins, and some famous pranks throughout the years. Each class then brainstormed and agreed on a class riddle or joke they would write and illustrate for a school-wide exhibit. Students excitedly browsed a supply of books obtained through a generous grant from the Giving Circle of Heritage Hunt, and each reader got to choose two books to keep forever!

"Animals in the Spring" Books for Keeps Program

Infants through four-year-olds started their Animals in the Spring book distribution with...what else...some relevant animal songs and games! Rousing choruses of Old MacDonald and the Eensy Weensy Spider led to a round-the-room parade during which the children could hop like a kangaroo, roar like a lion, stomp like an elephant, and waddle like a penguin! An energetic game of duck, duck, goose led to giggles and fun all around. Each child could choose two books of their very own. Thanks to RIF NOVA liaison Nicole Boatwright, parents, and the Teen Parenting team for leading this special fun-with-animals book distribution.

Meet the Inventor during STEAM It Up!

Potomac View reading specialist and RIF NOVA liaison Debbie Crawn and librarian Kevin Rock always add a clever touch to RIF NOVA book activities. Their version of STEAM It Up! at this Prince William County school was no exception. To start, children could view posters of inventors, engineers, astronauts, and scientists from throughout history -- along with thought bubbles -- arranged throughout the library. Younger students heard the book, I Got a Chicken for My Birthda y which, despite its title is actually about building! There was more fun ahead as students built mazes and picked from a range of nonfiction STEAM books to take home for keeps!

A Family Affair at Dumfries

It was a full-on family affair at Dumfries Elementary as moms, dads, grandmothers, cousins, and more joined students to STEAM It Up! The gym turned into a cacophony of creativity as parents helped their children to construct a maze or a bridge, followed by choosing a STEAM book to take home for keeps! Having building fun? Absolutely. Doing so with family love and support? Priceless! Special thanks to RIF NOVA liaison Emily Decarolis and her team for a day of books and building that students and their families will not soon forget!

Supporting Indie Book Stores!

We at RIF NOVA love ALL bookstores. But it's especially fun to support independent book stores. April 26 is Independent Bookstore Day. Winners of our sports story contest from the Book Olympics campaign last fall all redeemed their bookstore coupons at a nearby indie bookstore and proudly showed their winning wares!

The supported indie bookstores include Bards Alley Bookshop (Vienna, VA), One More Page Books (Arlington, VA), Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle, WA), and River Bend Bookshop (Glastonbury, CT).