TWIN FALLS, Idaho — The Scripps Howard Fund is celebrating a major milestone in its campaign to give books to students.
The "If You Give a Child a Book" campaign crossed the one-millionth book given mark, and this April is keeping this trend going to celebrate. On Tuesday, all students, in-class teachers, and the librarian of Lincoln Elementary School (a Scripps program partner) received a free book to celebrate.
“I think just the power of having the book is pretty special for our children,” said Tana Schroeder, 5th grade teacher at Lincoln.
The book each student received was the recent release in the 'Dog Man' series called "Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea". Students were excited about the news with some highlighting the good virtues taught in the series.
“Dog Man teaches you to always try and do your best. That's what I like about Dog,” said Jackson Wheeler, a 5th grader at Lincoln Elementary.
“I knew that the kids would be so excited, and in fact, I've had kids ask me about that specific book and so it was really an exciting thing for our school,” said Rebecca Emery, Lincoln Elementary librarian.
This is the second time this year Lincoln Elementary students have received free books from this campaign helping to establish reading early with their students.
“We have kids that don't have many books at home, or some of them may not have any books at all, so this is so great for them to be able to own their own books and start their own libraries. It can change futures,” said Emery.
“You'll hear a difference in the way that they problem-solve and the way that they speak and they're able to connect as well. So I think one thing that we can do, as educators especially, is to help them connect with the text in whatever genre that may be so our kids can think 'OK, this is my escape' and it's a healthy escape,” said Schroeder.
For more information on the "If You Give a Child a Book" campaign and the Scripps Howard Fund, click here.
