December RIF NOVA News! Bringing books to children -- all over town!

RIF RAP -- December 2025

RIF NOVA has been busy throughout the fall -- bringing books to children all over town ... from our Donated Books, Authors in Our Schools, and Books for Keeps programs. Your support has made ALL of this happen! Donations ensure that children in our community have the books they need to read -- and succeed! Click here to donate what you can before year's end, or see other ways to donate below. Thank YOU!!!

Donated Books Program

New and (very) gently used books have been coming in (thank you!) and going out to deserving children and families. To donate or request books, click here! To see more photos of donated books events, click here!

The holiday market at Alexandria's Good Hope Mission Church included plenty of RIF NOVA donated books, along with Santa and our mascot Clifford. One little boy -- originally crying when he saw Clifford -- was won over, and the two shared the sweetest hug ever!

One young elf joined her pal Clifford to stuff the Little Free Library at Groveton Elementary School with books for the holiday season. The duo wanted to make sure the children of Groveton had a few more choices for their winter break reading!

Authors in Our Schools Program

This program is gearing up to host author visits -- and an autographed book for each participating child -- throughout the spring semester. A couple of author visits have already happened this school year!

Bilingual author Tracey Kyle shared her book in rhyme, A Paintbrush for Paco, with kindergartners and 1st graders at Drew Elementary in late October. The students learned their colors and some phrases in Spanish and shouted out, "Me gusta" (I like it) when they learned they were each going home with a signed copy of the Paco book!

Author Ellen Oh held presentations for 4th and 5th graders at Alexandria's Cora Kelly ES on December 15. The author explained why she likes to write scary stories, and the kids all raised their hands when asked if they like to read them! Each child took home an autographed copy of the author's newest book, The House Next Door.

Note: If you'd like to support this program in RIF NOVA's Arlington schools, there is a special way to do so through the Arlington Community Foundation's 2025 Wish List. Full funding as part of the 2024 Wish List helped to fund six author visits at four Arlington schools!!! Click here for that link and help make our wish come true this year!

Books for Keeps Program

As RIF NOVA's signature program, Books for Keeps provides at least one new book each year for 23,000 children throughout Northern Virginia. And it's not just the book! RIF NOVA school liaisons stage really creative book distribution events to engage children and help them associate their book selection with something fun. Just look below to see just a few of the fall 2025 events and click here to see many more!

Students at Alexandria's Polk ES read the book Balloons over Broadway and then used balloons, construction paper, crazy eyes, and paper plates to make their own Thanksgiving parade creations -- followed up by a parade through the halls and book choosing. Librarian Mark Tierney created a must-see video of Polk's fun. Find it here!

It was beginning to look a lot like...Kwanzaa and Hanukkah and Christmas at PWC's Vaughan ES as part of "Hooray for Holidays!" Before picking their new book, the children filled out brain-teaser pages with code-breaking, symbol matching, and more about the holidays.

With "Elsa" (aka librarian and RIF NOVA liaison Dora Sue Black) leading the charge, children entered Arlington's Drew ES library with snowflakes from a real snow machine! Drew Dragons eagerly listened to stories of the season around a roaring fire (okay, a video of one!) -- followed by book picking and picture taking.

What can you make with a plastic cup, cotton balls, glitter, and straws? A snow globe! And that's exactly what children at PWC's Bel Air ES made as part of their winter book distribution. The kids fashioned works of art before picking two new books to take home for the holidays.

Woodley Hills ES in Fairfax County celebrated with a "Fall into a New Book" party. Before picking their new book, the students made pipe cleaner bracelets with fall-colored beads, created little monsters from playdough, or dot painted the character from The Monster Ate My Peas.

A reading of Chester Van Chime Who Forgot How to Rhyme had PWC's Potomac View ES children laughing and pondering what is a rhyme anyway! Each child got a specially made bingo card with rhyming words to test their knowledge. Picking two RIF NOVA book for keeps rounded out this fun-filled event!

With images of superheroes ka-booming throughout the library, children at PWC's Marumsco Hills ES read about superheroes and saw messages urging them to unlock their own superpowers. Students designed a superhero cape and then chose their new book -- many of them about, you guessed it, superheroes!

Halloween at the ACCA Child Development Center is a schoolwide affair with children, teachers, parents, and volunteers in amazing Halloween regalia. From a dance party at the front door to book readings to trick-or-treating in the halls, this is a Books for Keeps book distribution that's truly fun for all!

Ways to Donate

You can see that we, as an all-volunteer board, are very passionate about bringing books to Northern Virginia children and working hard to do so. If you would like to help with this vital work, we'd be grateful for the support! In additional to electronic giving, some other options are listed, below. Thank you! Thank you!