Read Your World: A Diverse Books Reading Incentive Program for Grades K-12

Submitted by Cleo Joyce

FCPL is very excited to launch Read Your World, a new reading incentive program for grades K-12. This program will launch this week and run through August 31. Read Your World is all about reading diverse books that encourage elementary and teen readers to explore and learn about the world around them.

How does it work?
Like the staff reading challenge, each month will feature a new reading challenge, and participants don’t have to read the challenges in order. Kids and teens can pick the challenges that interest them most. They can also read as fast or slow as they want. Registration will be open March-August, so patrons can register and begin participating and completing the program anytime during that time frame.

There are six different challenges and participants need to complete 5/6 challenges to earn a prize. Below are the challenges for each month as well as book lists with suggested titles:

March:
Read a Book by a South Asian Author

April:
Read a Book Featuring a Character on the Autism Spectrum

May:
Read an Award Winner Featuring a Diverse Character

June:
Read a Book by a Black Author

July:
Read a Book About Poverty or Homelessness

August:
Read a Book by a Latin American Author

What is the prize? A T-shirt for the first 150 who complete the program (thanks to generous sponsorships from Keller Williams and North Georgia Promotions)!  T-shirts will be available starting May 1.  Additional prizes are coming soon for those completing the program after the first 150 participants.

We are heavily promoting the program with Forsyth County Schools and would love if you could push it with our patrons! We’ll also be cross promoting during the Summer Reading Program and tying in challenges from Read Your World with the challenges we have available during SRP.

Promotional items will be on their way to the branches soon. Patrons can register for this program now via Beanstack, and registration will be available on the Kids and Teens pages of the website by the end of the day today. 

I’d like to encourage all staff to read along with Read Your World! There are so many wonderful diverse titles in our collection for kids and teens that are true windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors, providing a glimpse into a different culture, country, or way of life.

To help launch this program, we welcomed author and founding member of We Need Diverse Books, Aisha Saeed, on March 6th to speak with patrons about her books, writing process, and more. 

Thank you for helping to promote this challenge with our young patrons and happy reading!