Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day 2015

Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day

We first wrote about Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day back in 2011 when Olive was four. We’re excited to learn founder Jenny Milchman is testing out something new to further literacy and get books into the hands of more kids.

Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day is traditionally celebrated on the first Saturday of December (this year, Dec. 5, 2015), but for the first time, Jenny is extending the event to include a field trip for young children in Johnstown, NY. Through the help of generous donors, the expertise of fellow author and grant writer Dan Barrett, and an elementary school teacher, Heidi Sprouse, who took to the streets to drum up support, a rural community in New York will be able to send 36 pre-K students to their town’s local bookstore on Jan. 15. Each child will be given a book–in some cases, the first the child has ever owned– take part in a youth writers’ workshop, and share the excitement of the day over pizza with classmates and teachers. If this pilot day is successful, Jenny hopes similar programs can be introduced in at-risk towns and cities nationwide.

TAKE YOUR CHILD TO A BOOKSTORE DAY

Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day is all about introducing children to the pleasures of time spent in a bookstore, helping them to become supporters of their local economies at an early age and cultivating a lifetime love of reading. But not all children are able to experience these joys–with one in five kids in the U.S. food insecure, owning a book can be an unheard of luxury. Jenny’s dream is to make TYCBD a day in which every child can take part. Find out more at takeyourchildtoabookstore.org.

 

Read our interview with Jenny: “Jenny Milchman on How to Get a Book Deal After Only 11 Years of Bitter Rejection”