NJ Launches Young Readers' Book Club

New Jersey's Governor's Office and the Office of Early Literacy have launched Governor McGreevey's Book Club, a yearlong initiative to promote reading by distributing select monthly titles to every elementary school in the state.

Gov. James McGreevey announced the program on September 4 at the Watsessing Elementary School in Bloomfield, where he handed out copies of Johnny Appleseed, the September book selection for second graders. McGreevey will appear on NJN, New Jersey's public television station, on the first Thursday of each month to announce the K–3 book selections recommended by the Department of Education's Office of Early Literacy and Scholastic Book Club editors. Scholastic, which has donated three copies of the September and October book selections to every public elementary school in the state, will continue to ship books throughout the 2002–2003 school year in conjunction with other corporate sponsors.

McGreevey also unveiled the program's companion Web site, www.nj.gov/bookclub, where kids who read all nine selections will receive recognition. "While we teach students the basic skills here in the classroom," he says. "the Governor's Book Club will get young children reading—not just in school—but after school, at home and in their local libraries."