Our Mission
Flamingnet's mission is to promote reading among young adults; making reading more fun by highlighting
books that young adults may enjoy and fostering literacy through charitable work.
Background
Flamingnet was created in 2002. When I was in fifth grade, I read many different books.
This led me to combine my reading with my father's hobby, computer programming. Gradually I wrote reviews on the books that
I read, and my father posted these reviews on the Internet at Flamingnet. After seeing our
website, national publishers and authors of young adult literature began asking me to review their books. These publishers include Penguin Books, Scholastic, Random House, Simon & Schuster,
Time Warner, and HarperCollins, as well as many other publishers and individual authors. As I received more books to review, Flamingnet
began to accept student reviewers from all over the United States to help with the reviews.
Flamingnet is currently a growing young
adult book website, and my father and I are kept very busy spreading the word about our site and working with
all the reviewers, underwriters (adult volunteers that assist our student reviewers with their writing),
Flamingnet members, authors, publishers, and publicists that have become part of our Flamingnet community.
My grandfather in Florida is also very busy sending out letters to libraries telling them about my website.
Here are links to
awards
that have been received by Flamingnet and
comments
from users about my site.
|
Flamingnet at The State of Maryland International Reading Association Council Board of Directors meeting
and at 2008 Annual American Library Association Conference in Anaheim.
|
Flamingnet at The Arizona State Library Association
Teen Summit meeting
in Phoenix, April 2009.
|
The Website
My website is for students between 8 and 18 years old, their parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians who are looking for books to recommend or buy for their children, grandchildren, students or patrons. Flamingnet has lists of both classic books, as well as new titles, that this age group may find interesting and enjoyable.
To see these two lists, select the navigation button titled "Book Reviews."
The Book Reviews link takes you to two links:
1. REVIEWS OF PAST BOOK RELEASES
These are books that I have read and recommend. I briefly describe each book and rate them on a scale from 0 - 10. Although I have read all of the books in this
list, it is impossible for me to write all of the reviews. Any of the reviews I have not written in this
section come from Amazon.com, but all of the ratings are mine.
2. REVIEWS OF NEW AND ADVANCE BOOK RELEASES
This link takes you to a list of new and advance books. Flamingnet is an advance book reviewer. We regularly
receive new and advance books from publishers and authors. Books in this list are reviewed for you by
our Flamingnet Student Reviewers. Our student reviewers range from middle school to college and are from
all over the United States (some student reviewers are even from Canada, England, and Australia).
Our Student Reviewers
Over the years, hundreds of young adults have reviewed new and advance books for Flamingnet. Information about
how to become a Flamingnet student reviewer and an application are found elsewhere on the site
(information and application). Our student reviewers not only get to read new books before they
become available in bookstores, they get to keep the books that we send them to review. Flamingnet student reviewers
also learn how to express their opinions in writing
about what they read. Through our underwriter program, adult volunteers (authors, teachers and librarians)
assist our students with their writing skills and provide important feedback in order to encourage
them to become better writers.
After a student reads and reviews a new book, we ask them to rate each book they review on a scale from 1 - 10 (10 being the best). Flamingnet's
TOP CHOICE AWARD is
given to books based on this student reviewer rating. We also ask our reviewers about the language and content
(drugs, sex, and violence) in the book, and students rate books for content using our
Flamingnet Content Rating.
Hopefully, their reviews and ratings will help you decide on your choice of books.
Flamingnet Donations
Flamingnet also is an Associate member of Amazon.com. This means that for every item purchased on Amazon.com through my website, I receive credit (about 15 to 25
cents per item) from them. I use this Amazon.com credit to buy books to donate to charity, and for schools and libraries that do
not have money to purchase books for their collection. We have donated thousands of books to victims of Hurricane
Katrina, public schools, libraries, and other facilties in places such as West Virginia, Virginia, Rhode Island, New York, Texas, Arizona, and the Virgin Islands, and to Baltimore inner city schools through a
local charitable organization, Helping Hands. Therefore, please buy items on Amazon.com through Flamingnet and help us to help others.
If you would like to suggest any students or libraries in need that could benefit from a gift of books from Flamingnet, please email me
at webmaster@flamingnet.com. We also offer links to places where you can donate books.
Become a Flamingnet Member
Please become a Flamingnet member. Once a month we email a newsletter to our membership. Our newsletter highlights new and advance books that our student reviewers have liked during the preceding month. Furthermore, our newsletter and website offer low-cost advertising opportunities for authors and publishers to tell an interested audience about their new books. Flamingnet also regularly holds book giveaway contests exclusively for Flamingnet members.
Other Areas Of Interest At Flamingnet
My bulletin board ("The Board") encourages you (especially authors) to comment on books or on any other topic, even on my site. The Resources section of Flamingnet has a list of books linked to study guides and other materials. Furthermore, I have a Civil War
section that has a quiz, word find, and information on the Battle of Antietam. This is all part of a project I did in fifth grade, and for years it has been a very popular part of Flamingnet.
How To Submit A Book To Flamingnet For Review
If you have questions, please send me an email or call.
