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Aliyah had always been a reluctant reader.

While other students curled up with their favorite stories during reading time, Aliyah struggled to find books that captured her imagination.

That is until Aliyah was introduced to Books for Keeps, a nonprofit based in Athens, Georgia that offers kids the opportunity to choose 12 new books to keep and read over the summer. Since Books for Keeps’ founding, 240,000 books have gone home with kids at 11 elementary schools in their community.

With their help, Aliyah was able to walk into her school’s media center and find stories she was interested in and excited to read.

“You can put a book in a child’s hands that is on his or her grade level,” says Leslie Hale, Executive Director, “but a very different thing happens when a child picks out the books that they’re excited about.”

Giving kids a chance to choose books that interest them is especially powerful during the summer when they are out of school and at risk for summer slide.

Students from low-income households who don’t have access to books typically see their reading test scores drop over the summer, but the 4,300 kids (and growing) who participate with Books for Keeps actually improve their reading skills during that time.

And Aliyah was one of them.

“I just read all summer,” she told Leslie in the fall, “my brothers would go out and play and say, ‘don’t you want to come outside with us?’ and I would just say no, I want to stay here and read my books.”

After spending the whole summer with her nose buried in a book, reading doesn’t feel like the chore it used to — Aliyah now looks forward to independent reading. And what’s more: Aliyah shared that she now feels more engaged and confident at school.

And it all came from a simple bag of 12 books.

If you work with children in need you can find books and resources to promote summer reading on the First Book Marketplace.

The post A Simple Bag of Books Can Help Beat Summer Slide appeared first on First Book Blog.

Head on over to our PaperTigers Book Review page where we bring together in one place the best children’s and young adults’ multicultural book reviews published in several countries.

PaperTigers reviews are written by us and have an international scope, to keep you up to date on what is being published around the world. These reviews can also be accessed here on the blog under the category Weekend Book Reviews.

In addition to offering our own reviews, we also reprint reviews from the following trusted sources:

From the USA, reviews by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a key resource for anyone interested in children’s books published in the USA;

From Canada, reviews from Resource Links, a national journal dedicated to reviewing and evaluating Canadian learning resources;

From China, reviews from the Asian Review of Books, published in Hong Kong by Paddyfield.com and Chameleon Press;

From the UK, reviews from Books for Keeps, the most authoritative children’s book magazine in the country.

We also have archived reviews from two valuable sources which are no longer being published:  Desi Journal (USA), a website dedicated to literature from and about the South Asian diaspora, and Book Trusted News (United Kingdom), the magazine of the Young Book Trust.

So look no further for kidlit book reviews. We have them all here!

Thank you to all the magazines and websites for sharing with us their great content! Publishers interested in having their books reviewed by PaperTigers, and magazines interested in having their reviews reprinted here, can email us at:

[email protected] for more information.

UK Children’s Book Magazine Books for Keeps has revamped its website and now includes a complete archive, going back to Issue No. 1 in March 1980, which you can browse either via past issues or the Authors & Illustrators Index, or by using the searchable article or reviews databases. There’s also a discussion forum…

Read Rosemary Stones’ editorial for this month’s issue for a proper introduction… in which she quite rightly proclaims she has “no shame in blowing the Books for Keeps trumpet”!

And then read this thought-provoking article: Multi-lingual Storytelling by Anna McQuinn, which discusses storytelling with children with different home languages.

The cover I’ve borrowed to illustrate this post features one of my favorite reads from 2008, Broken Glass by Sally Grindley…

Today marks the beginning of Education Week July 27-31, a highlight of ‘United We Serve,’ President Obama’s call to nationwide community service. This is a challenge to all Americans to engage in sustained, meaningful service because ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things, which is directly aligned with what we do here at First Book.

Kyle Zimmer and President Obama

We have seen first-hand how our friends, volunteers, and the heroic programs reaching kids in need serve tirelessly, year-after-year, educating our children. We know you are already heroes, whether you are working in classrooms directly with children in need or making a simple monetary donation to provide more books for kids who need them. We are deeply thankful for all of you who help elevate educational opportunities for children across the nation.

Three easy ways you can participate in Education Week:

1. Visit http://www.serve.gov and look for volunteer opportunities in your area.
2. Visit http://www.serve.gov and post a volunteer opportunity in your community.
3. Start a “Books for Kids, Books for Keeps” virtual book drive to raise funds to get more books to kids through First Book. Individuals go to:  http://www.firstbook.org/booksforkeeps. Organizations serving kids in need go to: http://www.firstbook.org/rgbkbk.

As one of 14 national nonprofits on the ‘United We Serve’ Education Team advancing book distributions, summer learning opportunities, and library card registrations, First Book is leading efforts to dramatically increase access to books for our nation’s disadvantaged children. The ‘United We Serve’ initiative culminates in a day of service and remembrance on September 11, but is intended to remain a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to promote service as a way of life for all Americans.

We are pleased to be a part of this national movement to highlight service and we thank you for helping us deliver the books that will brighten children’s lives and inspire their journeys. With your help we can reach even more children.

We celebrate Education Week all week, and through all of you, throughout the year.

Just One More Book!! appears in the November 2006 issue of Books for Keeps, a children’s book magazine from the UK.

Books for Keeps has both a print and online edition. Click here to take a peek at the online edition.