Pass It On

A community-wide reading program for teens knows no bounds

By Sandra Irwin -- School Library Journal, 5/1/2004

If you're interested in creating a community-wide reading program with a limited number of books, try duplicating our Read It Forward program, which encourages teens to read. The concept is simple: choose one book of interest to teens and ask each participant to keep passing the book to another teen after they've finished reading it. The number of kids who end up reading the book will surprise you. Last year, some 800 kids in 23 branches of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library participated in our program. The idea is based on Pay It Forward (S & S, 2000) by Catherine Ryan Hyde, a story about an eighth grader who decides to change the world by doing a good deed for someone and then asks that person to "pay it forward" by doing the same for others.

Since we wanted the program to coincide with last October's Teen Read Week, planning started months in advance. In May 2003, we chose Ben Mikaelsen's Touching Spirit Bear (HarperCollins, 2001), the story of a ninth grader who's arrested for viciously attacking a fellow classmate and how his town deals with the assault. We chose the book because it promotes a sense of community—and because we knew Mikaelsen was scheduled to visit our town in the fall.

Over the summer, we contacted the local school district and mailed individual letters to school librarians and English department heads informing them about the project and asking if they would include the book in their lessons. We also asked them to spread the word to their staff and students. Read It Forward was also publicized in the library's monthly newsletter.

Afterward, we purchased 500 copies of the book, giving each an individual three-digit number and attaching a label explaining how the program works. We distributed about 35 copies to each of our urban branches and 10 to each of our rural branches. Teachers picked up the books for their classes, and parents brought home copies for their kids. Other books were scattered throughout town, on bus stop benches and even at the Southwest Airlines airport terminal. The books disappeared so quickly that we had to purchase 75 additional copies.

How did we entice kids to pass the book along? We asked our Webmaster to create a link on our library's Web site (www.lvccld.org/teens/programs/submit_spirit_bear.cfm), allowing teens to type their name, address, a short review of the book, along with their copy's three-digit identification number. This enabled students to track their book as it traveled from reader to reader.

At various branches, we held book discussion groups and showed the film version of Pay It Forward, starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. But the real draw was a visit from Mikaelsen, who impressed students with tales of his life. Many teachers offered extra credit to students who attended our programs. One sixth grader who was being bullied said the book gave him greater insight into why people bully, and a reluctant reader said it was one of the best books he'd ever read.

Our biggest problem? Some students liked the book so much, they decided to keep it rather than pass it along. In all, our books have reached about 800 teens, some of whom have passed the book along to friends as far away as Toronto and Guam. There are an estimated 135,799 middle and high schoolers in our district.

Although we had a $3,000 budget to purchase a large number of books, Read It Forward can be tailored to suit your community's size and your library's budget. You can also choose other books to target any age group, whether a family literacy program or a summer reading club. And it fosters a successful partnership between schools and the public libraries. Read It Forward was an easy and successful method for our one community-one book program, and it can work for your library, too.