Better World Books and Invisible Children's Schools for Schools Program Kick Off "The Biggest Book Drive Ever"

ATLANTA, GA (September 25, 2009) - Better World Books, the socially conscious online bookseller, and media-based non-profit Invisible Children today kick off the second annual Biggest Book Drive Ever - a nationwide campaign to raise awareness among young people about the war in northern Uganda. The book drive falls under the flag of Invisible Children's Schools for Schools campaign, which connects schools in the United States and Canada with partner schools in northern Uganda, and empowers students to raise money and books to benefit these partner schools.

The Schools for Schools campaign - a combined film tour and traveling book drive - will run through January and seeks to educate 325,000 students, raise $1 million dollars and collect over 1 million books.

The traveling campaign will deploy fifteen logo-emblazoned vans to more than one thousand high school and college campuses across the U.S. and Canada. The powerful call to action behind the book drive is the film "The Rescue," a 30-minute documentary about child soldiers abducted from their homes and forced to fight in Africa's longest running war.

At the close of "The Rescue," produced by Invisible Children, students are invited to join Schools for Schools and spearhead book drives and fundraisers on their own campuses. These efforts are ultimately a means for students to mobilize their school and entire community to take action on behalf of children in northern Uganda.

Between now and January 29, 2010, Better World Books will use its resources and expertise to work with student groups to amass books from the drive and sell or donate them to raise money in support of Invisible Children's education, literacy and community development programs.

Through the Biggest Book Drive Ever, Better World Books and Invisible Children will harness the passion, creativity and hard work of students across the country to do good for students in need halfway across the globe. Round one of The Biggest Book Drive Ever included over 300 schools that together raised 1.7 million books to benefit northern Uganda.

At the end of the competition, The Biggest Book Drive Ever will award the top three schools with all-expenses-paid trips to visit northern Uganda. Leading up to that prize, students will be able to track their progress throughout the semester using Invisible Children's Schools for Schools website, s4s.invisiblechildren.com. "Our unique partnership with Invisible Children's Schools for Schools program allows ordinary citizens across the U.S. and Canada to support lasting peace in Uganda by donating a resource both countries have in vast quantities - used books," said Xavier Helgesen, co-founder of Better World Books. "We'll transform books cluttering closets, stuffed under beds, and collecting dust on shelves into dollars to support literacy and international development."

Invisible Children's Schools for Schools program uses innovative online social communities to help students see where their money is going and connect them to different projects, fundraising ideas, and supporters. The international organization created the revolutionary fundraising program in 2006 to help rebuild desperately needed schools in war-ravaged northern Uganda that had been destroyed by displacement, rebel occupation and lack of funding. Since getting started, students have rallied together to raise over $4.75 million.

Better World Books, winner of the 2008 Fast Company Social Capitalist Award, is a fast-growing social enterprise that collects donated books and sells them online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. Through partnerships with more than 1,600 college campuses and 900 libraries nationwide, Better World Books has generated over $7 million for its non-profit, library and college partners and diverted more than 29 million books from landfills.

"What's incredible about this program is that it relies on the most unlikely donors - high school and college students - to bring in the books," said Laren Poole, Invisible Children co-founder and Director of "The Rescue". "The book drives is a great addition to Schools for Schools because it gives everyone - no matter how much money you have - the chance to win a trip to Uganda next summer."

The Biggest Book Drive Ever will end on January 29, 2009.

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Established in 2005, Invisible Children is a social, political, and global movement using the transformative power of a story to change lives. By inspiring youth culture to value creativity, idealism, and sacrifice, the movement fuels the most effective, adaptable, and innovative programs in the world. Invisible Children, Inc. was formed after the release of the film "Invisible Children: Rough Cut", which documents a war in northern Uganda in which children are abducted by a rebel army and forced to fight as child soldiers. Currently, Invisible Children is putting 765 kids through school and employs almost 100 men and women living in this war-torn region, with plans to see that number grow. These programs on the ground were developed by the people of northern Uganda and seek to improve the quality of life for individuals through quality education, enhanced learning environments and innovative economic opportunities. www.invisiblechildren.com

ABOUT BETTER WORLD BOOKS
Better World Books (www.BetterWorldBooks.com) is a for-profit social enterprise that collects and sells books online with each sale generating funds for literacy initiatives in the U.S. and around the world. With more than three million new and used titles in stock, Better World Books is a self-sustaining company that balances the social, economic and environmental values of its stakeholders. Better World Books diverts books from landfills by conducting book drives on 1,800 college campuses, and by collecting discards from over 1,800 libraries nationwide. Since its founding in 2003, the Mishawaka, Ind.-based company has raised over $7 million for its non-profit literacy, library and college partners; donated over 1.3 million college textbooks; diverted more than 25 million pounds of books from landfills; achieved over 9,000 tons of carbon offsets through carbon-neutral shipping, and created more than 200 full-time jobs with meaningful benefits.