Photo Provided – Glen Dale Elementary School fourth grader Emma Earliwine opens to Who Was Jim Henson?, a book provided by the Kids Read Now program and Marshall County Schools.
MOUNDSVILLE — Young college students across Marshall County received a surprise in their mailboxes last week, the first in a series that will last through August.
Through the Kids Read Now program, provided by an eponymous company, students in grades K-5 receive six books in the mail addressed to them that are tailored to the reading level of their class. Student services director Karen Klamut said the books come with a parent’s guide, a mobile app and a guide to each book for you to follow.
Klamut said the district has been sending books home with Pre-K students for years, but the Kids Read Now program was only recently created and the decision to work with the company will be made in December.
“We’ve always sent books home with Pre-K students, they usually go home and come back,” Klamut said. “We didn’t do that this year because of COVID. We sent all the books home every month. … With some of the money we got through the CARES (act) we bought this program to put books in students’ homes so they don’t have to take them back to school or anything. They are strictly for the home only.
“The company sets them up to be mailed to students,” Klamut continued. “You get a box addressed to the student. Everyone likes to get mail. Hopefully they’ll all be very excited when they go home and have mail waiting for them.”
The cost of the program was borne by the school district without passing the cost on to families.
Klamut said the district had already purchased the program during the summer months, for a total of 14 books between late January and the fall’s return to school. Talks to set up the program began in December, and shipments began early last week, with the first books arriving on Wednesday.
