Book club brings parents into the fold
Main Street Elementary School is now a member of the statewide book club Texas Reads One Book.
With a $2,012 grant from the Taylor Educational Enrichment Foundation, librarian Vanessa Collier will buy 300 copies of “The Lemonade War” by Jacqueline Davis, both in English and Spanish, for third through fifth graders to own, read aloud and do activities with their families.
“The whole thing is to bring parents into the partnership of their child’s education,” Collier said. “I’m hoping that it’ll make (students) remember that reading is fun (and say,) ‘Hey Mom, let’s get another book,’ and maybe they’ll continue going with that.”
The program, hosted through the Virginia-based nonprofit Read to Them, aims to connect families, schools and communities as students across the state and across different grade levels interact with the same book at home and in school.
“We’re trying to create kind of a communitywide conversation,” Read to Them Director of Programs Bruce Coffey said. “If people are reading the book at home and talking about it and exploring it at school, then you have conversations and interactions that don’t just take place within … classroom(s). They take place, you know, at lunch and on the playground and field and at church and the supermarket.”
In addition to statewide programs in seven states, the organization also offers reading programs at a national level and at a district or campus level for schools that want to participate on a smaller scale.
“We want to share the program and share the books with as many people, as many schools, as many students, as many families as we can,” Coffey said.
In addition to family literacy, “The Lemonade War” will teach pupils entrepreneurship and financial literacy as they learn about two siblings who run competing lemonade stands.
“The author has provided some interesting little tips about entrepreneurship … and some language about how to calculate your profit and keep track of your costs, and we play that up in our resources,” Coffey said. “Some schools will say, ‘My families will love that, as long as we’re not just doing math all the time. We’d love to use this as a way to inspire them to learn a little bit more about that together.’” Texas Reads One Book began 10 years ago, and “The Lemonade War” made its first appearance in the program in 2017. That was Main Street Elementary Principal Kerri Pierce’s first introduction to the program, during the time she was a principal in the Vidor Independent School District.
Now at Main Street Elementary seven years later, Pierce brought the idea to Collier, and the two worked together to bring it to the campus.
“It is kind of full circle,” Pierce said. “This program is so important to be able to offer kids a free book, something that they’re going to enjoy, something they connect with their families.”
Learners starting Feb. 10 will follow a reading plan and take part in trivia, bingo and more without the pressure of getting a grade. Parents will also receive digital resources to help keep the young readers engaged at home.
To build excitement, the educators plan to host a kick-off assembly that matches the book’s theme. Pierce recounted how her previous school served lemonade, put on a skit based on the story and shared a recording of former Dallas Cowboys football Coach Jason Garret reading the first chapter.
“I think (students will) be really excited,” Collier said. “There’s a lot of students who want to be in a book club. … And parents want to help — They just don’t know how to help. And so, this is going to be so easy for them to know what to do because it’s all going to be provided for them.”
“(This will) foster a love of reading … (and) just adds to that culture of reading that we’re trying to build on the campus,” Pierce added. “It’s just, ‘Let’s have fun reading.’ I love that.”
If the program is successful and receives plenty of positive feedback from parents, Collier and Pierce hope to work it into future budgets to keep it going.
