Bonus for bookworms: Tuolumne school rewards summer readers

The modest homes just south of the Tuolumne River and east of Ninth Street hold lots of aspiring students, but not so many books. Every summer, low-income kids overall slide back without those page-turners to keep their skills sharp.

This summer, Tuolumne Elementary took steps to stop the slide, opening its library for two hours every Wednesday. The idea came from the Stanislaus County Library’s Summer Reading Challenge, said Principal Heather Contreras.

“We stole the Stanislaus library’s wonderful idea and made it our own,” she said Friday before a morning assembly to award prizes to summer scholars. Readers X-ed off hours read on a colorful form, getting a raffle ticket for every seven hours.

Raffle winners walked to the head of the class to claim their prizes Friday, eight scooters donated to the school by Turlock High student Luke Bartell, co-founder of the nonprofit Gearing Up.

“Reading is an extremely important part of anyone’s life. When I was your guys’ age, I read all the time. My favorite books were the Harry Potter series,” Luke told the students, pledging to be back again next year with more scooters for summer readers.

Teaming with Gearing Up for scooters was a money saver, but having a teenager tell her students that reading is cool – priceless, Contreras said.

Only 32 of Tuolumne Elementary’s 600-plus students turned in reading sheets, said school librarian René Hill. The scooter handout to participants will help change that for next summer, she hopes, as will school chatter around what they read.

“They really enjoyed it,” Hill said. Top reads were the Maze Runner series, Spirit Animals, graphic novels, Junie B. Jones books and anything about dogs and cats. Cookbooks and almanacs were surprise favorites, she said.

Any Tuolumne student could check out school library books, and the rest of the family could pick out selections from a box she provided. “They were just books I’ve picked up at thrift stores and around,” Hill said. The important point was everyone left with something to read.

This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 4:18 PM with the headline "Bonus for bookworms: Tuolumne school rewards summer readers."