Taylor Swift Partners With Scholastic to Donate 25,000 Books to New York schools

You may hear that Taylor Swift stays out too late, has nothing in her brain, or that she goes on too many dates and can’t make them stay. But that’s just what people say.

What is more important (and a fact) is that she will be partnering with Scholastic in donating 25,000 books to New York City-based schools in 2016, in support of the Open a World of Possible initiative.

Twenty-five schools will each receive 1,000 new children’s books through the Scholastic Possible Fund as a result of Taylor’s support. As a long-time literacy advocate, Taylor hosted a webcast for classrooms during which she shared how books, reading and writing have influenced her and opened her world.

Scholastic said in a press release yesterday:

The importance of increasing access to books in schools was highlighted in the most recent Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report which found that children ages 6–17 from lower-income households are more likely to read books for fun in school and far less likely to read books outside of school than their higher-income peers.

Further, having a selection of texts for independent reading can be a powerful tool to encourage kids to pick up a book. The same report revealed that nine in ten kids agree their favorite books – and the ones they are the most likely to finish – are the ones they pick out themselves.

Big props to both Taylor Swift and Scholastic for supporting such a wonderful endeavour.

Children’s literacy levels are a growing concern throughout many parts of the US (as they are in Australia), with the correlation between lower income households and poor literacy levels simply impossible to shake off.

You can’t shake that data off.

Shake it off.

Oooo-ooooo-oooo…

Okay, we’ll stop there. But seriously, awesome stuff Tay Tay…

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About the Contributor

Andrew Cattanach

Andrew Cattanach is a regular contributor to The Booktopia Blog. He has been shortlisted for The Age Short Story Prize and was named a finalist for the 2015 Young Bookseller of the Year Award. He enjoys reading, writing and sleeping, though finds it difficult to do them all at once.

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