77% percent agree that reading over the summer will help them during the school year
Kids often compromise with their abilities only because they don’t get the right platform and/or time to root themselves. Schools offering summer programs are generally focused on polishing learning capabilities or encouraging kids to develop other skills. This summer, more than 500,000 children across America tackled two issues; summer learning loss-the loss of academic skills that occurs when school is out and book access. However, they came with one solution: reading. As part of the Scholastic Summer Read-a-Palooza– free education and philanthropic program- involved kids tracked their summer reading minutes through the program’s online Summer Reading Challenge. Not only this, they have managed to align themselves along the way unlocking 200,000 copies of new children’s titles to build home libraries for kids without easy book access.
The United Way of encouraging readership
Moreover, United Way is proud to partnership with Scholastic and honored to have distributed over 200,000 books to encourage reading through the Scholastic Summer Read-a-Palooza program.
Dedicated to building more resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities, United Way believes it’s critical all children have access to start from a root in life and the ability to develop essential literacy skills through access to quality books.
Believing kids as the catalyst for change, and United Way as a trusted partner in distributing books to those who need them most, the Scholastic Summer Read-a-Palooza ensures more children should experience the lasting benefits from summer reading and decided to extend through the school year and beyond.
“Today, we celebrate these kids and thank the many parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers who came together to encourage reading over the summer,” said Stephanie Smirnov, Executive Vice President, Global Communications, Scholastic
Reading enthusiasm begins book charities
According to findings from the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report™: 7th Edition, kids know the reading provides benefits that extend well beyond the summer months. 77% percent agree that reading over the summer will help them during the school year. However, the same research shares that there is a rising trend in the number of kids ages 6–17 who read zero books over the summer, from 15% in 2016 to 20% in 2018.
The 200,000 donated books by Scholastic were distributed to kids at select United Way locations across the country. Additionally, independent booksellers and libraries extended the impact of the program by hosting Scholastic Summer Read-a-Palooza ‘Give Back’ book drives, donating over 10,000 new and lightly-used books to local communities across the country.
When reading challenge becomes a myth
For seven consecutive years, kids have read more than 100 million minutes through the online Summer Reading Challenge with a total of 109,334,297 minutes. In addition, the school, public library or community partner organization with the most minutes read earn the title of Best in State School, Top Library or Top Community Partner. They will be featured in the 2020 Scholastic Book of World Records to be released on November 5.
Moreover, the program believes kids can unlock book access for other kids in two ways:
