If you want to give a holiday gift that will keep on giving, consider a donation to GCPS’ “fleet” of Book Mobiles!
The two well-stocked Book Mobiles— called Pow! and Explore! to match their brightly colored exterior design— are converted school buses that drive neighborhood routes in the Meadowcreek and Norcross clusters to encourage summer reading. During the school year, the specially renovated buses visit Gwinnett schools for literacy events, school parades, and other school-sponsored events. Local schools can “Book the Bus” as a part of their reading rewards program. For these events, the Book Mobile is stocked with new books— purchased with donations or provided by sponsors— that students can take home for free to add to their own personal library. To date, 28,000 schoolchildren have received a new book through this program!
You can help put books in students’ hands in one of three ways (or all of them!)…
Make a donation to the designated Book Mobile fund maintained by the Gwinnett County Public Schools Foundation.
Participate in Barnes & Noble’s book drive to benefit the GCPS Book Mobiles through Dec. 31. Visit the store in The Forum in Peachtree Corners or the Mall of Georgia store and select from among the books on display near the registers.
The Book Mobile also accepts new, unused books with pre-approval from district staff. Send an email to bookmobile@gwinnett.k12.ga.us or call 678-301-6431 regarding book donations.
Looking for a great children’s book as a holiday gift?
Check out these book recommendations for elementary students and learn more about reading instruction in grades K-5. Our media specialists also say you can’t go wrong with award-winning books like Newberry(best writing) and Caldecott(best illustration) medal winners and honored books in the Coretta Scott King and Pura Belpré awards as well as picks from “best of” lists like the Notable Children’s Books Listcurated by the American Library Association and School Library Journal’sBest Books of 2018 list. The lists include picture books, chapter books, books for the middle grades, young adult novels, and non-fiction. You’ll also find recommendations for graphic novels, poetry, audiobooks, even notable digital media for kids. If you have a reluctant tween reader at home, consider these read-alikes for popular TV and film adaptations recommended by SLJ. Reading Rockets shares this list of recommended books arranged by themefor young readers. And, this list of 250 popular books will give you plenty of ideas for little book lovers from birth to age 5.