A Christmas Picture Book to Donate to the Children's Hospital

I'm donating copies of my new book, Mr. Gloomingdale's Christmas, to the Children's Hospital at Middlemore, and I'm inviting you to purchase more copies of the book to donate with me.

The story is about a formerly grouchy man who's trying so hard to not be grouchy that he decides to put on the biggest Christmas party he can. Because it's his present to his friends, he tries to do everything himself, with hilariously disastrous results. He soon finds out that things like getting ready for Christmas is more fun when you share them with friends.

The Children's Hospital at Middlemore, Auckland, has constant numbers of kids being admitted all the time, and the Education Unit there always needs books, books and more books.

They're always keen to promote literacy by having books for the young patients there to read, but there are also kids who get admitted who aren't lucky enough to have books of their own.

The Freemasons of Auckland Kidz First Program was started by a great bunch of guys who volunteer for this cause, collecting and delivering as many books as they can to the Children's Hospital at Middlemore.

With their help, kids have more books to read during their stay, and many have a book to take home with them after their treatment.

Here's the plan for this Give a Little: You can make a donation to this page, of any amount you like.

The book retails for $19.99, and I will match all donated copies. That means for every $20 donated, I will provide two copies of the book to the Children's Hospital.

At the end of the time period of this event, the Freemasons of Auckland Kidz First Program will deliver all the copies donated to Middlemore.

As I mentioned, I was planning to donate copies on my own, but let's see how many we can donate if we do it together. If nobody donates, then I will still be giving books to the Children's Hospital. But if, by some Christmas miracle, I run out of copies of my book, I'll use ALL the surplus funds to buy other picture books to donate to the Kids First Program this Christmas.