The district’s traveling libraries—our two book mobiles called Pow and Explore—are about to hit the road to bring a summer of reading to Gwinnett students!
Our book mobiles will return to neighborhoods next month to bring library books to our students where they are this summer… at home! Starting on Tuesday, June 1, the two mobile libraries will travel routes that will take them to a total of 100 stops in six clusters every week! The colorful converted school buses will make nine stops per day, checking out school library books to students who may not have easy access to the public library.
Did you know… While pandemic concerns kept the district from checking out books last summer, our book mobiles still traveled around the county to keep children reading. Pow and Explore, staffed by district employees and volunteers, visited 88 schools in June and July of 2020, distributing more than 60,100 new books to Gwinnett children and teens during the Books 2 Kids program.
“Reading during the summer keeps students' brains active and ready to receive new information when school begins in August,” says Jan Wilson, GCPS’ coordinator of media instruction. “Beyond academics, we want to remind our students of the power of a great story… to inspire, connect, learn, and develop empathy for others.”
The book mobiles will travel routes in six clusters: Berkmar, Central Gwinnett, Discovery, Meadowcreek, Norcross, and Shiloh. The program started with the Meadowcreek Cluster in 2017 and added stops in the Norcross Cluster in 2018. Berkmar, Central Gwinnett, Discovery, and Shiloh clusters were added in 2019. An average of 13,000 students visit the book mobiles during June and July and typically check out more than 16,000 books during the summer!
The two book mobiles will be stocked with books for all ages and reading levels—Pre-K to 12th grade—pulled from the shelves of each cluster's media centers. The weekly schedule (11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday and 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday) will repeat each week, starting Tuesday, June 1, and ending Saturday, July 24. (Note that the book mobiles will not travel on July 3 and July 5.)
Each day, the Atlanta Community Food Bank will provide snacks at each stop. From June 1 until July 16, the GCPS School Nutrition Program will offer meals to children visiting the book mobiles at the first four stops each day, Monday through Friday.
Find a link to the routes are on www.gcpsbookmobile.org. This summer, you also can follow the book mobiles on Twitter and Instagram @gcpslibraries or through the hashtag #GCPSBookMobile.