CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Books are starting to be mailed out this week to every incoming first grade student and second grade student in West Virginia.
Each of those roughly 37,000 students will receive two books this month and three books next month for free as part of the newly-launched West Virginia Blue Ribbon Selections Book Club.
The Book Club, a first of its kind program in the United States, is a partnership between the state Department of Education, the Marshall University June Harless Center and The Dollywood Foundation.
“We hope that having these books will spark a love of learning and a love of reading,” said Monica DellaMea, executive director of the Office of Early and Elementary Learning in the state Department of Education.
“We are just super excited about the fact that it means books in the hands of children this summer.”
This summer is a different kind of summer.
Students were last physically in schools on March 13.
After that, all lessons were handled remotely because of school closures in the coronavirus pandemic.
“We want to make sure that because of this extended time away from school when children have been engaged in remote learning that they’ll be able to extend their learning at home and really be able to have fun with the books, of course, because it is summer,” DellaMea said.
“But be able to, hopefully, jump in on some of those foundational reading skills that are so critical for children who are entering first and second grade to be able to develop.”
The books were designed to be a learning starting point.
Family engagement activities, tied to the books, were available HERE.
Activities were also going to included in weekly segments on “Education Station,” the state Department of Education’s educational programming on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Before the start of the next school year, all first and second grade teachers will receive the same books as a way to help with the coming transition back into school.
“With a new teacher, a new school year after being out of the building for so long, this will help the children to fit in and just say, ‘I have this book and all my friends have this book and so does my teacher,'” DellaMea said.
In all, about 200,000 books made up distributions for the West Virginia Blue Ribbon Selections Book Club.