The Fledge Trust

The Fledge Trust was established to help build a life-long love of reading in young New Zealanders.

Nationwide

The Fledge Trust is working towards building a life-long love of reading in young New Zealanders. Reading for pleasure contributes to our social, cultural, and economic health and is a key ingredient in the development of empathy and well-being.

Fledge was inspired by Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris of children’s publisher Annual Ink https://www.annualannual.com/. Together, they seek out, mentor, and publish new and established New Zealand writers and illustrators for young readers aged 8–13 years.

Kiwi kids need books that reflect their lived experiences, their communities, and their country; books that open windows beyond their own worlds; books that help shape their curiosity and empathy and feed nimble, curious minds. It has become increasingly difficult for new writers for children to break into publishing. Annual Ink is working hard to create a new generation of writers.

Fledge's trustees are Barbara Larson, Sarah Connor, Michael Petherick, Rachel Hayward and Bridget Bridgman. You can find out more about the trust at https://www.fledgetrust.org/

Our current fundraising project is focussed on purchasing, packaging and delivering 450 copies of Annual 2 - commissioned, edited and published by Annual Ink - to low decile schools across Aotearoa New Zealand. It's a truly original mix of fiction, comics, poems, essays, art, crafts, cooking, art, music and drama.

We want to see Annual 2 read and loved as widely as possible. To support this fantastic project, visit our Cause page: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-us-donate-annual-2-to-low-decile-schools

More about us

The Fledge Trust was established to help build a life-long love of reading in young New Zealanders, especially aged 8-13 years. Fledge was inspired by Kate De Goldi & Susan Paris who seek out, mentor, and publish new writers for young readers.

Other page links

www.fledgetrust.org/

250 copies of Annual 2 posted to schools across Aotearoa so far 16 December 2021

We’re excited to let you know that because of your generous support, we’ve been able to package up and post off 250 copies of Annual 2 to low decile, full primary and intermediate schools in Auckland and Northland, on Great Barrier Island, in the central North Island, the greater Wellington area, the Wairarapa, on the Chatham Islands and all over the South Island.

The recent article in the Dominion Post featuring Naenae Intermediate’s school librarian Lois Fordyce and student librarian Amelia Ferguson, has helped us raise more money to send more schools a copy of the much-lauded Annual 2.

“There’s never enough money in school libraries, so you have to weigh up what you put your money into, what will be most beneficial for students,” school librarian Lois Fordyce said. “So when we get these beautiful books freely sent to us, you think ‘yes, this is wonderful’. There is so much in Annual 2 for young readers to become engrossed in, many are drawn to graphic novels, but could also be introduced to poetry through the book.”

You can read the full story here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/127162042/charity-bringing-new-zealand-books-to-lowdecile-schools

We’re all set to post off another 175 copies of Annual 2 when schools reopen in 2022.

To help us reach our goal of sending 450 books to low decile schools around New Zealand, we’d appreciate you sharing our Givealittle campaign page https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-us-donate-annual-2-to-low-decile-schools with your friends and family far and wide. As you know, every little bit counts as we, The Fledge Trust, go about building a life-long love of reading in young New Zealanders.

Photo (L-R): Lois Fordyce (school librarian) and Amelia Ferguson (student librarian) of Naenae Intermediate in Lower Hutt with Kate De Goldi of Annual Ink.

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