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Angel Says: Read is dedicated to providing books donated by tourists to the Belize public library system. As an organization, we believe in the power of words, the creative underbellies of poetry, essays, short stories and long stories. It is our mission to provide a way for these words to be recycled. When it formally launches in November 2009, Angel Says: Read will have strategic drop-boxes in major tourist centers throughout the country. Read it. Leave it. 

Angels Says: Read is a charitable organization with tax-exempt status (pending) in the United States and is applying for NGO status in Belize. You can help us by spreading the word, talking to us about starting a similar program in your tourist community or by making a donation to our cause. Angel Says: Read will provide you with a receipt for your tax deductions. Unfortunately, we cannot accept book donations because of the prohibitive costs of shipping them to Belize. If you have books that you’d like to share, we encourage you to donate them to your local public library.

Angel Says: Read was founded in May 2009 by Jackie Spinner. As a former reporter for The Washington Post and a book author, Jackie has traveled the world. Whenever she departed for a foreign land, she took a stack of books with her. In most places, she had to carry those books home because she wasn’t in an English-speaking country. But in Belize, because English is the official language, Jackie was able to leave her books behind after spending three months living near Orange Walk Town in early 2009. While still in Belize, she decided to create an organization that would give others the same opportunity to donate their books.

Angels Says: Read is partnering with the University of Belize to implement its project, providing students with a unique learning opportunity and a stake in advancing literacy in their country. The majority of the board of directors for Angel Says: Read are Belizean.

The name, Angel Says: Read, is a play on the title of the 1948 collection of poetry by Sir Edney Cain titled “When the Angel Says: Write.” Cain was the first managing director of the Belize Monetary Authority, the first governor of the Central Bank and the first Belizean resident ambassador to the United States. 

Angel Says: Read was created in honor of Jackie’s mother, Donna Spinner, who took her to the Decatur (Ill.) Public Library whenever she asked and taught her to love books.

         SLIDE SHOW: Read it. Leave it.