April is (fill-in-the-blank) month!

Can I just say it feels good to be typing up a post again?

I'm sure many of you know (and the rest of you will soon enough find out) that planning a wedding can be awfully time consuming! Who knew table linens could be so important? Lately, my attention has been centered more around flowers, cakes, and tuxes rather than books so I do apologize for the lack of posts. However, even though I've been laying low, I have been working on a few special projects :)

I have been thinking about April for months. There are several causes being celebrated this month, and because they each mean something to me, I'll be featuring books and information accordingly throughout the next four weeks.

April is School Library Month with April 10-16 being National Library Week. All month long I will feature ways you can get more involved in your school and public libraries, and I will spotlight different library programs across the country.

April is also National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Here are a few scary statistics:

- An estimated 702,000 children were neglected or abused in 2009.

- Children from birth to age four had the highest rate of victimization.

- 78.3% suffered from neglect, 17.8% suffered from physical abuse, 9.5% suffered from sexual abuse, and 7.6% suffered psychological maltreatment.

- An estimated 1770 children died from neglect or abuse. 80.8% of these fatalities were under four.

(Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

National Donate Life Month is something that means a lot to me personally. It is largely due to donor blood she received as an infant that my sister is here today. This along with the recent loss of a friend to leukemia has pushed me to promote donation more than ever. From blood, to tissue, to organ, to bone marrow - an ungodly amount of people each year need more than their bodies can provide. That need can be supplied by you.

I'm really excited to promote awareness about these very worthy causes, and I hope you'll join me. Feel free to leave links, share stories, or spout off ideas in the comments. There are several reviews, book features, and even a few discussion posts scheduled to appear in the next few weeks. Again, I'd love to get feedback with all the ways you guys are celebrating April.