Children at five HISD early childhood centers to receive free books for summer reading

Pre-kindergarten students at Gabriela Mistral Early Childhood Center giggled with happiness as they picked out books to keep for their very own.

The children were digging through some of the 2,000 gently used books donated to that campus by Books Between Kids, so that each child could take home six books to start their at-home libraries.

“It’s not easy to get books,” said parent Brenda Deleon, “so I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to get books for my son to read through the summer.”

This is the third year that Books Between Kids has distributed books to HISD elementary school children and the first year for it to do so at early childhood centers. This year, the organization will provide books and new book bags to 42 elementary schools and five early childhood centers, serving over 29,000 children.

Representatives from the United Way, Phillips 66, Better World Books, Friends of the Houston Public Library, and The Children’s Fund, all sponsors of Books Between Kids, and HISD staff were on hand to help out with the giveaway.

To learn more about the origins of Books Between Kids, please see this related article about its founders, or this article about the 2014 book distribution.

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