MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: GLOBAL READS

National Book Tokens launches Global Reads as part of its campaign to raise £10,000 for Book Aid International.

To celebrate its new Gift Card, National Book Tokens has launched ‘Global Reads’ as part of its campaign to raise £10,000 for Book Aid International. The money raised will be used to distribute 5,000 books to library users across 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Every year over half a million books from Book Aid International arrive in public libraries, local and regional libraries, community libraries, NGO resource rooms and libraries in schools, prisons, universities and refugee camps. Book Aid International Director, Clive Nettleton comments “All the money raised will help us to change even more lives by sending high quality books to libraries and resource centres in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.”

People from across the world are asked to vote for their favourite Global Read via www.globalreads.co.uk - a book with a global theme that has changed their perception of another country or introduced them to a different culture, such as Half a Yellow Sun or The Kite Runner.

Book lovers visiting www.globalreads.co.uk will be encouraged to share the chance to win new Gift Cards with friends and in doing so, help National Book Tokens raise £10,000.

The results of the favourite Global Read will be announced on 3 June 2010.

To support the campaign a range of high profile celebrities have also contributed their favourite Global Read. Celebrities include Gordon Brown, Alexander McCall Smith and Sophie Dahl.

“lmproving education across Africa is vitally important in eradicating poverty and the Government is committed to helping poor countries achieve the education Millennium Development Goal. I welcome the work that you are doing to send as many books to sub-Saharan Africa as possible and I wish you every success with your campaign.” Gordon Brown, Prime Minister

Sophie Dahl has chosen Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder as her Global Read. She comments, “The book is non-fiction, Kidder's study of Doctor Paul Farmer, an infectious disease specialist, anthropologist and all round good egg, who is the co-founder of a global not for profit called Partners in Heath, who provide free comprehensive healthcare for those living in poverty. The book traverses Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia, and the work of PIH in these countries in a totally accessible, compelling way. As Farmer's message is ‘The only real nation is humanity’, it seems a perfect choice for a global read.”

The current top 10 global reads are:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Voting for global reads will take place on www.globalreads.co.uk. People can follow and comment on the top ten books here.

National Book Tokens Gift Cards will be accepted by bookshops across the UK from 1 February 2010

National Book Tokens have £1,000 of new Gift Cards to be won on the Gift Card launch website. People will be encouraged to enter the competition and share this chance to win. For each friend they tell, National Book Tokens will donate 10p to Book Aid International

The gift card comes in a handy plastic credit card format and in a range of attractive designs aimed at both adults and children and featuring the work of household names such as Quentin Blake and Ed Vere

Super flexible, any amount can be loaded onto the cards, from £1 to £250 and they can be ‘topped up’ at any time and by any amount, up to the maximum value of £250. If the value of a purchase is less than the value on the card, the remaining balance will remain on the card and can be used for future purchases

A limited number of Gift Cards are available to the media for competitions.

National Book Tokens are the perfect gift for book lovers everywhere and are the only gift cards sold and accepted in bookshops across the UK, including all the major chains and local independents. National Book Tokens supports lifelong learning and improving literacy and access to reading for everyone. They are proud sponsors of World Book Day and Quick Reads, which aims to improve adult literacy. Visit the National Book Token website here.

Book Aid International increases access to books to support literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Each year they send half a million books to local and regional libraries, community libraries, resource rooms and libraries in schools, prisons, universities and refugee camps in sub-Saharan Africa and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Visit the Book Aid website here.