BE A BOOK ANGEL OR A BOOKSLEUTH THIS HOLIDAY WITH ABEBOOKS AND FIRST BOOK

(Victoria BC, Washington, DC, December 1, 2003)-AbeBooks.com, the world's largest online marketplace for used, rare, and out-of-print books, has teamed up with First Book to put books into the hands of children this holiday season.

"We recognize there are Angels and there are BookSleuths: some people want to give books and some people want to help others find books," explained Hannes Blum, AbeBooks CEO. "This year we're inviting both to help kids, and First Book is making it possible."

First Book, the US charity that gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books has provided almost 15 million new books to American children in the past two years. Kyle Zimmer, president of First Book, comments: ""First Book is very excited to be working with such a respected online seller to help bring the magic of reading to at-risk children. AbeBooks has stepped forward as a great corporate citizen this holiday season to support efforts to reach those children still waiting for our help."

AbeBooks is contributing to the campaign by donating one dollar to First Book for every BookSleuth query that is solved on the BookSleuth Forum at www.abebooks.com

BookSleuth is a feature on AbeBooks.com that helps people who can remember a certain book, but not the title or author. They may remember a plot detail, a character, or even the front cover. These people post their description and AbeBooks community members around the world help solve the mystery. To date over 10,000 BookSleuth queries have been solved.

The campaign goal is to raise $2,500 before December 31, 2003. In addition to the money AbeBooks is donating, the public is invited to take part by making their own cash donation.

All donations over $25 receive a gift bookmark and a charitable tax receipt. Donations of $100 will receive a signed children's book such as: Crispin: The Cross of Lead, by Avi; Eragon by Christopher Paolini, Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey, The Leaf Men by William Joyce, or Old Turtle and the Broken Truth by Doug Wood. The first two donations of $1000 will receive a signed copy of Santa Calls, by Bill Joyce or If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff.

Other partners in the campaign include Random House, who will match every dollar donated to First Book before December 31, 2003, with a new book from Random House Children's Books to be given to children through First Book.

Visit www.abebooks.com/docs/Holiday/ for more information.

About AbeBooks
AbeBooks is the world's largest online marketplace for secondhand, rare, and out-of-print books with over 50 million books listed by 12,000 independent booksellers. AbeBooks is a global company based in Victoria, BC, with sites dedicated to bookbuyers in North America (AbeBooks.com), the UK (AbeBooks.co.uk), France (AbeBooks.fr), and Germany (AbeBooks.de).

About First Book
First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. In neighborhoods across the country, First Book Advisory Boards unite leaders from all sectors of the community to provide books to children in literacy programs, shelters for battered children, housing project initiatives, soup kitchens, after-school programs and other community-based efforts reaching children living at or below the poverty line. In the last two years alone, First Book has provided almost 15 million new books to children in need in hundreds of communities nationwide.

Contacts
Richard Davies, PR & Publicity Mgr., AbeBooks.com
Ph: 250-412-3238
rdavies@abebooks.com

Elizabeth Matthews ematthews@firstbook.org Tel: 202-393-1222