School classes in many other countries have helped us get books into more Lao villages, by sponsoring a book, or a book party.

Mirjam, a teacher from Karl-Schubert School in Graz, Austria, visited Laos and Big Brother Mouse in 2010. She told her class about us, and they read Yuli's Story. (You can download and read it too, below.) They opened "Yuli's Shop" where they sold some things Mirjam had brought back from the night market here, as well as used books, and other items. They raised $450, enough to sponsor a book party in a very large village.

Another school held a book sale. Everyone donated books they were finished reading. The money from the sale was enough to sponsor a book party.

At another school, everyone gave up dessert or snacks for a week, and used the money to sponsor a book party.

In Australia, after they saw how exciting it was for children here to see a new book, one class donated enough to sponsor a new book.

If your class would like to do that, we have several materials to make it more interesting:

Yuli's Story

We asked a boy in Laos to tell about his life. Here is his story, with many photographs. The text is in English, French, and German.
Free download

The Little Elephant That Could

If you sponsor a book party, what will happen at it? Although a bit fictionalized (Boom-Boom, our book elephant, can't actually talk) this book shows the Mouse team in action, along with an inspiring message about not giving up. Lao and English. Illustrated.
More about this book | Free download

One Mouse and Seven Cats

This book was originally written to introduce Lao children to simple arithmetic concepts. The pictures depict many scenes of everyday life in Laos, which are probably quite different from life in your country. For this PDF, we've added background information at the end, in English, explaining each picture. Lao and English. illustrated.
More about this book | Free download

Some of the other books on our free downloads page may also be of interest.

Sponsoring a book party at a rural school: We normally ask for a donation of $250 to $400 (USD) for this, but we realize that schools and students vary greatly in their resources. If your class can raise at least $200, that will be enough. We have small villages here, and large ones, and we'll find one that's a suitable size for your donation.

Follow-up with a school: We would like to be able to offer continued contact between your school and students, and the one where you sponsor a book party and mini-library. It would be enjoyable, and a good learning opportunity, for everyone. Unfortunately, the realities of long distances, and different languages, make this impractical. These schools don't have email, or internet; many don't even have electricity. We will send photos and a report about the book party that you sponsor, but are very sorry that we cannot offer more follow-up.