Books on Break
Building Home Libraries for Summer Reading
Books on Break is a joyful, exciting way to help students build their home libraries and equip students with high-interest books to help them practice reading all summer long.
What is Books on Break?
Book Harvest’s Books on Break program partners with school districts and organizations to enable PreK and elementary school students to select ten brand new books to take home and keep forever, right before summer break.
Students select brand new books from a wide array of diverse and high-interest titles in both English and Spanish.
Book Harvest's 2023 Books on Break program provided 14,208 students with 70,389 books in 35 public elementary schools and childcare centers. Books on Break ran from May 4 through May 22, reaching every student in 30 Durham Public Schools, along with schools and Pre-K sites in Columbus, Bladen, and Guilford Counties.
Why Books on Break Matters
• Increasing access to self-selected books for summer reading is an effective strategy for lowering summer reading setback and narrowing the income-based achievement gap among students. [1]
• Programs that encourage home-based reading during the summer have been proven to be effective in stemming summer learning loss. [2]
• Successive years of book provision confers benefits equal to or more than those from successive years of summer school at a fraction of the cost. [3] [4]
Books on Break Locations
Durham County, NC
Guilford County, NC
Columbus County, NC
Haywood County, NC
Bladen County, NC
Person County, NC
Thank you to our Books on Break funders: NCDPI's ELISS Grant Program; Haywood County Schools; Ready for School, Ready for Life, and Duke Energy Foundation