Introduce Yourself

Hey everyone! I'm Fernando, from Make Way for Books. I'm the Digital Director at Make Way for Books, which is a fancy way of saying that I'm in charge of the Make Way for Books App. 😝

I've worked at Make Way for Books for 5 years, having started out as a Family Literacy Specialist and Spanish translator. Working on developing the app has been the most amazing and rewarding project of my entire career, and my favorite part of my job is getting to meet people from all over, including librarians, educators, authors, illustrators, developers, people that work at all sorts of non-profits big and small, and of course, incredible families and children!

My biggest hope for the app is for it to provide all families and young children with equitable access to high quality books, and to show parents that they have what it takes to be their children's best teachers and storytellers!

I'm looking forward to meeting you, too. You can always reach me at fernando@makewayforbooks.org or here via this forum. And I'm always happy to schedule a phone call or video call.

Thank you for the critical work that you all do. Let's change the world together.

Hello everyone, my name is Cheyenne! I am one of the Distribution Specialists at Make Way for Books, which means I help to spread the word about our app and talk to potential partners about what we do here. I also help to manage this resource page!

I love reading, but I didn't start out that way! As a child, I used to hate books and I hated reading even more. I even went so far as to make up my own books and write my books reports on them 😅. But that all changed when I finally stumbled across Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones in my middle school library. All of a sudden, I couldn't stop reading! I read and I read and I read until, before I knew it, I graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in English with a focus in children's literature.

One of my goals for the Make Way for Books App is that children and families will develop a love of reading early on (and NOT write book reports on made-up books, although that does have potential for a promising future career as a writer 😉). I want children and their guardians to build a connection through reading, and I believe that the app is a great way to put books into the hands of families everywhere—no matter where they are!

If you have any questions, try seeing what other forum discussions we have a available (General Discussion, FAQ, Early Literacy) and leave your query there! I'm always happy to answer! You can also email me at cheyenne@makewayforbooks.org

I can't wait to meet all of you!