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Pinellas book bus combats summer learning slide
The Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County is trying to prevent the summer slide with its book bus. FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Children climbed aboard a school bus Wednesday at the Police Athletic League of St. Petersburg, where seats were replaced entirely with shelves of reading material.
Each child picked out two free books to take home as part of a summer reading effort.
Pinellas County literacy initiative
What we know:
The Summer Book Bus program, now in its ninth year, is run by the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County and Pinellas County Schools.
Over three weeks, two mobile buses are making 85 stops to deliver 10,000 books to more than 5,000 children.
Free books combat learning loss
The backstory:
Organizers designed the initiative as part of the Early Readers, Future Leaders: Pinellas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.
The primary goal of the campaign is ensuring every local child becomes a proficient reader by third grade.
Research from the University of Florida shows children lose an average of 20 percent of their literacy skills over the summer.
"We know they're not getting as much literacy in or reading in,"Brianna Ray, JWB Community Collaborations Coordinator, said. "So, our goal is really to create access, to allow kids to build their own personal libraries and to really help literacy in our community."
Community leaders support reading
What they're saying:
Organizers say children are excited whenever they step onto the buses and see row after row of books.
"They get on and see that there are absolutely no seats," Ray explained. "There are only books, and they're really excited to be able to pick out their own books," she said. "They're very excited and there's always lots of laughs, lots of smiles and good feelings all around."
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway noted how meaningful it is for kids to step away from screens and hold real books.
"Everybody wants to grab a computer or a tablet, something that's quick, but now they're getting something and a lot of cases, you know, you just heard them, ‘I get to keep these books,’" Holloway said. "So, that really says so much."
Kids enjoy the bus
Local perspective:
Local children who visited the bus on Wednesday described the experience as a highlight of their break.
"It’s really exciting to just read, and reading just takes you through a whole journey through a book," 11-year-old Arion said.
"It has like a bunch of stories and adventures that you can go on while reading it," 9-year-old Chyanne said. "Instead of being on your phone or iPad, you can read. If you read, you see all the books, and you can look inside the books and the books have a lot of journeys and stories and adventures that you can read that other things don't have."
Mobile bus schedule details
What's next:
The Book Bus will make its next stop at the Largo Public Library on Thursday.
The bus will be stationed at 20 Central Park Drive starting at 10 a.m.
The Source: Information in this story is from the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County (JWB), St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway and the Police Athletic League of St. Pete.