Ways to Get Involved

We welcome your involvement! It takes a substantial amount of time to prepare a single online book, about 40 hours on the average. Since starting this project in April 1999, I have been able to complete about a book a month. There are hundreds of wonderful children's books that I would like to include. Take a look in the following categories for a sampling of what might be offered:

Adding a book to this site does more than adding a single book. If the book is a collection of stories that can stand alone, it adds to the number of stories that can be included in anthologies. Once there is a critical mass of stories, it will be possible to develop anthologies on all sorts of themes: stories to read to a six year old, stories for a beginning reader to read to himself, stories about frogs, stories from China, stories of courage, stories for autumn, stories for holidays, and so forth.

At the rate I can add books myself, it would take decades to get the books I already have on my shelves online. If this project appeals to you, consider offering your services in one or more of the following ways:

Prepare a whole book from start to finish.
Scan the text of a book using your own scanner.
Edit text scanned by you or someone else to correct scanning errors.
Prepare text using our Editorial Guidelines.
Proofread a draft version of a text.
Prepare images for inclusion in illustrated books.
Convert a text already in electronic form into our format using our Editorial Guidelines.

Project Gutenberg has a number of texts that would be wonderful additions, including a number of books in Andrew Lang's series of color fairy books.
Offer suggestions on appropriate age ranges for the stories in books already available. Occasionally, all the stories in a book are suitable for the same age, but typically, there is a mix, with some stories suitable for the younger children and others for the older ones.
Point out errors in books already available.
Write annotations for books and stories already available.
Research and write articles about the authors, including a list of their books for children. I can forward you the information I have from Twentieth Century Children's Writers and The Junior Book of Authors. The St. Nicholas magazine, that was published for decades at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, regularly included feature stories about authors. Another good source of information about authors of books for children is Who Should We Then Read? by Jan Bloom, 1999.
Group stories into categories, for example, all the versions of "The Three Little Pigs," so it will be easy to compare them and choose one for a particular purpose.
In the books that list stories (when some are available), add hypertext links to the stories where they are mentioned.
Provide information about printers. We think we would like to upgrade from a slow-speed inkjet color printer to a color laser printer with capabilities for duplexing and automatic document feeding. But we are also interested in learning about offset printing and wonder how electronic texts may be used in offset printing.
If you would like to support this work by offering a donation of money in addition to, or instead of a donation of time, we would gladly accept your contribution. Since we do not have legal status as a tax-exempt non-profit corporation at this time, your contribution would not be tax-deductible. Any money you donate will go toward the purchase of books and equipment for scanning and printing text.
Tell others about us!

To get involved, send e-mail to me at Lisa@MainLesson.com, telling me how you would like to participate. I look forward to hearing from you!

Lisa Ripperton