Welcome to the Beloved Books Exchange

This portal serves participants in the Books for Israel Project around the world. 
Students, teachers, donors, and others interested in advancing English language literacy
amongst Israeli students can contribute to discussion forums about books, literary genres,
ideas for inspirational reading projects, ways to encourage literacy, and on-going debates
about what constitutes great children’s literature. 
We hope the site will help encourage English language literacy,
and develop a bridge of supportive communication amongst all children and educators involved.

If you have not already done so, please REGISTER YOURSELF
so that you can both read and contribute to this site.
Only participants in the Books for Israel Project will have their registration approved.
Once you become a member, you can both read and contribute to various forums in this site.
Although guests can view certain aspects of the site,
 there are areas to which only members have access.
Please note: temporarily, the initial "I Agree" page claims that users under the age of 13
are disallowed access.  However, all participants in the Books for Israel Project,
no matter what their age, can register to this portal.
If you are a student under the age of 13,
please ignore the age qualification and hit the "I AGREE" button.
At some point soon, the "I Agree" page will be corrected by the general administrators
at edu-negev.

All participants are asked to use respectful in language and tone
in their contributions and responses to contributions made by others.
Anyone who abuses a forum by using unacceptable language or hurtful attitudes
will be blocked from participation in all discussion groups by the site administrator.

You are currently on the HOMEPAGE for this portal.
Use the "Zone Links" (above) to move to other sections.
All the discussion groups, pen-pal projects, and posted work are items linked
within these four zones:
Teacher's Zone, Student's Zone, Books Response Showcase, and School Pen-Pals.

The Teacher's Zone is an area closed to members of this section only.
To access the Teacher's Zone, you must have the current password. 
Members can contribute to current discussion topics and propose new discussion topics
which they will administrate.
Please contact Ilan Bar-Shalom, the site administrator, if you are an educator who is
participating in the Books for Israel Project and you do not have the current password.
Be sure to include your personal e-mail address in your message so that we can
get back to you.

The Student's Zone is an area which can be read by guests,
but only registered members can participate and contribute to the discussion groups.
Members can contribute to current discussion groups and propose new discussion group topics.

The Books Response Showcase is a place where book reports, summaries, book reviews,
critical commentary, or summaries about creative projects are made.
Only registered members can view work posted or make contributions.
For explanations on how to post work, see the Books Response Showcase section.

The School Pen-Pals section allows donor and recipient schools to operate a
a discussion group to which access is limited to those schools. 
Please contact Ilan Bar-Shalom, the site administrator, if your school
is participating in the Books for Israel Project and you would like a pen-pal page
to be set up for use by your students and the students of the school(s)
twinned with your own. Be sure to include your personal e-mail address so we
can reply to you.

Our sincerest thanks to Elisha Babyoff, the webmaster of edu-negev
who has made space in that portal for this site
and for the Books for Israel Project site
and who is providing us with the forum engine
for our discussion groups.

Warm thanks to all our donors around the world
who are making this project possible
by organizing book drives
and by donating books to Israeli schools
serving all sectors of our population.
Please keep in touch with your adopted school.
You are truly making a positive difference
in the education of all our children!

Special thanks to Netta Haim of Kibbutz Degania Aleph for designing and contributing
our Beloved Books Exchange logo (the cute creature reading at the top).

Special thanks and gratitude to Rena Cohen and the people at the Israel Action Committee
who help twin up book drives in North America and Europe
with schools in Israel.

Page design and overall site administration is provided on an entirely voluntary basis by Jade and Ilan Bar-Shalom.

The Books for Israel Project, all book drives, and the Project's communicative website, The Beloved Books Exchange,
are all organized and maintained by concerned individuals who generously contribute their time and efforts
for the sake of advancing literacy amongst all of Israel's populations and to encourage peace and support
between children in Israel and around the world.

There are absolutely no paid staff or stipends provided to anyone at any level in this project.
All books donated through this project are sent directly to the schools in need
who share incoming donations with other schools who similarly lack good English-language children's literature.
All book donations become the possession of the school libraries, for use by all the children.