Verizon Taps Peter H. Reynolds to Support Literacy, Education
By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 7/8/2008
Peter H. Reynolds, the award-winning author of The North Star, The Dot, and Ish, was named by the Verizon Foundation as its latest Thinkfinity champion.
In his new role, Reynolds will volunteer his time and talent to raise awareness and support literacy and education initiatives. Past honorees include Boston Red Sox team captain Jason Varitek, world-class athlete and advocate for the visually impaired Erik Weinhenmayer, and CBS TV star Eric Close.
Thinkfinity.org is the Verizon Foundation's free online portal to more than 55,000 educational and literacy resources for teachers, parents, and students. They include standards-based, grade-specific, K-12 lesson plans, and interactive activities provided in partnerhip with many educational and literacy organizations.
Reynolds, who has illustrated the New York Times bestselling "Judy Moody" series (Candlewick Press), as well as the cover of Judy Blume's "Fudge" series (Dutton), made his first appearance as a Thinkfinity.org champion on July 1 at the National Education and Computing Conference in San Antonio, TX, where he joined Close, star of CBS-TV's Without a Trace, in leading an audience of 300 teachers through an interactive demonstration about how technology can help create engaging classroom material to excite students and simplify classroom preparation for teachers.
In addition to his work with the Verizon Foundation, Reynolds plays a key role with several Boston-based literacy organizations, including EverybodyWins! Metro Boston, Literary Lights for Children, Reach out and Read, and ReadBoston.
Reynolds and his identical twin brother, Paul, founded FableVision, an award-winning educational media company, located at the Boston Children's Museum.
The Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, supports the advancement of literacy and K-12 education.
