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Authors, Operation Literacy and state officials push book access: free book drops and author visits for Title I schools
Summary
Authors at the symposium urged greater book access and school-librarian support; Operation Literacy detailed a Book Drop program delivering free books and author visits to Title I schools and said author presence boosts reading uptake.
A panel of bestselling authors and a keynote by Carlos Lozada closed the symposium with appeals for inexpensive, high-return investments to get books into children's hands. Lozada said books can be "like friends" and urged adults to make reading a repeated, pleasurable habit.
Jennifer Nielsen (founder of a book-drop program) and other authors described how author visits and free-book distributions can change behavior. Nielsen said one initiative gave every child in a Title I school a free book and an author appearance; she reported that seeing the author raised the likelihood of a child reading the book and that in one counting exercise author visits increased engagement substantially. "He ran to the car and said, 'grandma, my first book ever,'" she recalled, describing a child who received a signed copy.
Operation Literacy representatives asked philanthropies and policymakers to fund book ownership, library staffing and author-visit budgets. Authors on the panel also stressed the importance of school librarians: "If kids walked out of elementary school reading for fun, you win," one panelist said, urging districts to preserve and fund full-time librarians.
What happens next: Operation Literacy and partners will continue book-drop work and encourage donors to underwrite author visits and book ownership programs in high-need schools.
