In this time of social distancing, the school district’s Book Mobiles— Explore and Pow— are taking a new approach to promoting reading during the summer months. In the past, these mobile libraries have made their rounds to apartment complexes and neighborhoods each week, allowing children to check out books to read and return the following week.
This summer, the Book Mobiles will launch the Books 2 Kids program, visiting more than 80 school locations and allowing children to choose two new books for their own personal library! During the first few weeks of June, Book Mobile will visit each GCPS middle school, inviting students served in that cluster to come by and select two free books for summer reading. The Book Mobiles also will make visits to a number of additional schools for Books 2 Kids events through the end of July.
All Books 2 Kids events will take place outside in the bus lanes of the host school and will follow social distancing guidelines. Each Book Mobile visit is scheduled from 1 to 5 p.m..
“The mission of the Book Mobile is still to get books into children’s hands, and this need is even more critical now,” says Mary Barbee, GCPS’ director of Media Services. “In the current health crisis, we could not safely use our traditional neighborhood checkout model. Instead, Books 2 Kids brings new, popular books to schools and students who come by and pick free books to keep. With this program, we are able to maintain social distancing while giving kids a chance to pick the book they are most likely to read at home.”