Children's literature and Haiti

I know we're in the middle of the critiques for Polish Your Pitch, but I have an aside.

We haven't yet discussed all the tragedy in Haiti. The recent earthquake has both amplified the problems and brought the struggles of the Haitians to the attention of the world. You may be asking yourself what this has to do with children's literature.

A group called the Harry Potter Alliance is working very hard to raise money to send three planes of supplies to Haiti. The HP Alliance has long had the support of J.K. Rowling, and now YA author John Green and his brother Hank Green are supporting the group's efforts. See their video here.

The idea behind the Harry Potter Alliance is that in the books, Harry and his friends work together to fight injustice and evil in their world. Using this theme as inspiration, the Harry Potter Alliance encourages young people to volunteer their time to bring about social change in ours. It's a kind of Dumbledore's Army for the world we live in.

If you'd like to donate toward their efforts in Haiti, you can also enter a raffle to win prizes. The deadline is this Saturday at 11:59 pm, just before midnight. Many of the raffle prizes are kidlit oriented and have been donated by authors such as the above mentioned, along with Neil Gaiman and Maureen Johnson. Just goes to show you what an awesome community this is to be a part of!