Friday, August 4, 2017

Soar with Reading: Vote for NYC Children to Win 100,000 FREE Books from JetBlue and Random House Kids #BookBattle




"If you're going to get anywhere in life, you're going to have to read a lot of books" 
~ Roald Dahl. 

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. The opinions in this post are 100% my own. 

At the start of the summer, JetBlue and Random House Children’s Books launched it's annual Soar with Reading™ initiative, which provides age-appropriate books to children who need them most and until August 31st of 2017 we all have the chance to vote for one of four cities, including NYC to win the next donation of 100,000 FREE books in a good ole' internet #bookbattle 

During school breaks I remember my mom would take my sister, brother and I to the library and we'd check out as many books that were allotted, typically more than we actually wanted to carry home and our dad proudly ordered us the full set of World Book Encyclopedia and we'd get lost in a world of imagination and history.

Being a mom who was an avid reader as a child, I knew that the day I'd have children of my own that I would spoil them with shelves of books very early on. My husband thought I was crazy to have subscribed to a book club for a baby, but sure enough CJ came home from the hospital with a shelf of books to get him through the first two years of life. Over a decade later and with another Lil' monster in the house, that shelf is bursting from the seams and filled with an array of books. Heck yes we've been fortunate to have access to so many pieces of literature but today there seems to be a vast number of areas around the U.S that have limited offerings of age appropriate books. 


This June the Soar with Reading program landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with JetBlue installing four custom vending machines throughout the city to distribute 100,000 books, free of charge that get refilled every two weeks. The vending machines include a variety of children’s books with the newest enhancement to the program including the addition of bilingual (Spanish/English) books.

As part of the JetBlue For Good® program and by partnering with Random House Kids in 2011, JetBlue launched Soar with Reading to encourage kids’ imaginations to take flight through reading and the initiative has supplied over $2,750,000 worth of books to kids in need, freaking amazing! What's even more impressive is that after measuring the impact of the program on local residents of Washington D.C and Detroit researchers discovered that: 


  • Three out of four children with access to the vending machines scored higher on early literacy exams than before they had access to the machines.
  • Parents in neighborhoods with the machines had more knowledge about their children’s reading habits than parents in areas without the machines.

So here's the deal, right now we're in 2nd place, behind Boston so to generate excitement (and votes) for New York, a Soar with Reading event is being hosted this Sunday, August 6 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the famous bookstore The Strand (828 Broadway). In partnership with Random House Children’s Books, attendees will be able to meet authors R.J. Palacio (Wonder) and Chris Grabenstein (Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library) during a book signing, enjoy scoops from local JetBlue ice cream partner Blue Marble, and vote for New York in the #BookBattle.

To avoid summer brain drain we encourage that our two boys sit down with a book at least once a day for 30 minutes to an hour. No matter what I especially try to carve out time with Tristan who's made huge strides at the end of first grade as an Emergent Reader.  Unlike his big brother he just recently started to find joy in reading books like "Petunia" and choosing his bedtime stories from the hundreds of books we have at home. Listen to him read to me. 


Listen to my big boy read! As a struggling Emergent reader, Tristan left first grade with a greater love of books and is way more confident! We're fortunate to have hundreds of books at home but there are so many book deserts around the country where kids don't have access to age appropriate books. With just a simple, daily click of a button you can join the #bookbattle and vote to have 100,000 FREE books donated to NYC children thanks to @jetblue & @randomhousekids. You can head to @strandbookstore this Sunday at 12pm to celebrate the program with author meet and greets & Blue Marble Ice cream! Head to http://bit.ly/SoarwithReadingNYC for more details! . . . . . #sponsored #soarwithreading #lilmonstersinnyc #reading #bedtimestories #nyc #childrensbooks #nyclife #kidsbooks #learn #teacherlife #momlife #books #jetblue #dadlife #mommyhood #parenting #educator #backtoschool #randomhouse #iloveny #nycmoms #nyckids
A post shared by Danielle (@dellahsjubilation) on
As a former elementary school educator and mama I'm so excited to help spread the word about this campaign because there are so many communities & kids here in New York that would benefit tremendously! Head to The Strand this weekend and make sure to spread the word about this amazing program by telling your friends and family that they can go online daily to vote at soarwithreading.com



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