District 153 Teachers Receive Books on World Book Day

On Monday, District 153 School Board President Shelly Marks gave away 25 copies of her favorite book to district teachers as a volunteer for the first “World Book Night” in the United States.

World Book Night U.S. (http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/) is a campaign to give out thousands of free, specially printed books across America. Volunteer book lovers are asked to promote reading in their communities by selecting a book they love from a list of 30 different titles and handing them out for free to new or light readers or other special populations.  The effort was launched last year in Great Britain to commemorate the birth and death of William Shakespeare on April 23rd.

Marks says she applied to be a part of the program last fall.  She was required to state which book she wanted to give away, to whom and why. 

“I wrote on my application that I wanted to give books to our fantastic teachers here in the school district.  While they do so much to instill a love of reading in their students, I sometimes worry that they—like many adults—don’t make enough time for themselves to read for pleasure,” said Marks.

Marks handed out copies of one of her personal favorites, “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave, at each of the school district’s four schools and asked recipients to pass along the book to a colleague when they finish.