Autism Book Exchange and Review

I started a yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MakingPECSCards/ in January of 2004 to share Picture cards with other families across the country.  This is called a Round Robin, which I mentioned in a rant here recently.

I have wanted to start a local http://autismmeetup.com group in the Los Angeles area but do not have a location or funds to do so at this time.

I have a stack of books that I want to make available as a resource to families whenever I do start such a group.  In the meantime they are sitting around collecting dust.

I have heard of the paperbackbookswap site, but a search produced zero results for the subject of autism, which I figured would be the case.  My son likes Goosebumps books but he wants his own collection, so there is no reason for me to join.

I came up with the idea of doing an Autism Book Exchange and Review for the gather group, http://autismfamilies.gather.com.

The rules are quite simple.  Be a member of the group, post a listing of the books you have that you can share with other families.  If you have a review someplace online for any of the books include that with the name of said book. 

If someone is interested in borrowing the book through the exchange they would send you a private message with their name, address, phone number, email address and gather member id.  Each book should have a mailing label of the owner for easy identification purposes.  The sender is responsible for mailing the book and postage. 

The maximum time frame for having a book is one month.  The borrower would then pay the postage to send the book back and post a review on the group for others to peruse.  The review link can than be sent to the owner of said list for edit purposes of including it within the list for other members to gain insight into the book.

Each member will also send me a private message letting me know the name of the book and member id who has borrowed it.  I will keep a master list of who has which book and if need be contact member if they have not returned the book within the noted time frame.

This is open to members who reside in the US.  The mailing can be done via media mail and COD is not allowed.  Books can be family memoir books and special education books.  Anything that falls into the category of special education, autism spectrum disorders and social skills and related therapies.

Feel free to invite people you know online who might benefit from this book exchange.  If you would prefer you can send me a message with their email address and I can invite them to the group to participate.

To recap the rules would be as follows:

1.  Member of Autism Families Group in the US.

2.  Post a list of books you have to share

3.  When you find a book send that person a message showing interest along with your name, address, phone number, email address and gather member id. 

4.  Send me a message with your gather member id, name of book and person who are borrowing from. 

5.  The person who has the book pays for postage to mail it.  This can be media mail with no CODs allowed.

6.  Time frame for book is one month.  When done with book return to the owner and post a review in the group and then send the link to the owner for inclusion to their list of their books under that book.

7.  When owner receives book back send me a message letting me know. 

8.  We can also do a waiting list for books that are already out on loan.  I will post a listing of which books are out and when due back weekly or bi-weekly depending on popularity of the Autism Book Exchange and Review.

I have been writing reviews on epinions for 6.5 years, http://www.epinions.com/user-bonniesayers  and have been the Editor of the Autism Spectrum Disorders site at Bellaonline.com, http://autismspectrumdisorders.bellaonline.com.

If this sounds like something you are interested in, please leave a comment stating whether you have books to exchange or just want to read some on the subject. 

The Autism Families group is located here,

http://autismfamilies.gather.com

My listing of books to share -

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