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TREMONTON — As the school year winds down, kids all over Utah are finding incentives to turn in their old books and give those books a new start in the hands of kids who don't have them at home.
For example, Tremonton's McKinley Elementary hosted a book exchange where kids could donate books they've already read and pick a few new ones to take home for summer reading.
"Which book should I choose?" mused one fourth grader shuffling through the hundreds of fresh offerings.
"We want them to bounce into summer with summer reading," said Marci Borg, McKinley's AmeriCorps Read Today coordinator. "we want to keep their scores up for summer."
- Runs through June 15
- Families can donate any five books in the bin at their nearest Papa Murphy's pizza
- For each five books, they'll get a mini-murph pizza
- For more information go to Readtoday.com
It's easy for some families to take books for granted, with book shelves overflowing and a broad collection of reading material. Educators say many Utah families don't have books at home. So when kids leave school, their learning stops.
To address that, KSL's Read Today program has partnered with Papa Murphy's throughout Utah, with Drop 5 for the Book Drive.
Papa Murphy's Nels Anderson describes how it works.
"If they bring in five books, then they can take home a Mini-Murph, which is a little pizza that kids can cook themselves," he said.
The pizza incentive to donate speaks to kids in a language they understand. Few things encourage kids like free pizza. The book drive may provide moms with a break from cooking dinner and an opportunity to clear up shelf space clutter.
The biggest benefit, however, is for the thousands of Utah kids who could make the summer a time of learning and progress, if they had reading material in their homes. Papa Murphy's will gather the books from its restaurants and re-distribute them to community programs and schools that need them.
