K is for Kids launched its literacy month by taking celebrations out to children in Immokalee at Farm Workers Village. Hosted by the Collier County Housing Authority Land, students from the local elementary school and their families enjoyed a barbecue, bounce house and cotton candy. Four authors joined K is for Kids, reading their stories and signing complimentary books for participants. Our teen volunteers offered face painting, too. Every child got to choose from the 1,000 books on hand, collected throughout the holidays to achieve the goal of ringing in the New Year with new books for the kids!

Rising Readers:  This exciting new initiative introduced in September 2011 supports the creative efforts of media specialists to encourage their students to read more while recognizing their reading achievements — when a student reaches the reading goals set by their media specialist, they may choose a new book to take home and keep.

Children are bringing literacy home and building their own personal book nooks.

Rising Readers launched by supporting a pep rally for students at Golden Terrace Elementary-Intermediate in Naples.  Media specialist TJ Weeks dressed up as a super hero and K is for Kids’ founder Karen Clawson was there, too, to urge the third, fourth and fifth graders to “Power Up with Reading”.  Each student who pledged to read a book within the time set by Mrs. Weeks had the opportunity to choose a new book to take home and keep, thanks to K is for Kids.

Golden Terrace Elementary-Intermediate continues to be the focus school for Rising Readers and the results have proven promising:  TJ has reported a heightened interest in books and a dramatic increase in the number of books being checked out by students.  This is significant because many of the children are from families where English is not the first language spoken in the home and the majority of children have families enrolled in a lunch assistance program — books are not a luxury parents can afford to buy for their children.

To continue encouraging the students, K is for Kids Foundation and Barnes & Noble Booksellers are donating a free basket of books to the top two readers at both Golden Terrace Elementary’s Primary and Intermediate Schools, plus K is for Kids is giving each grade’s top reader a gift certificate to the bookstore.  K is for Kids’ will be presenting a complete set of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books — signed by author Jeff Kinney.