FOR THE 5TH YEAR, BESTSELLING AUTHOR JAMES PATTERSON TEAMS UP WITH SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUBS TO HELP TEACHERS BUILD THEIR CLASSROOM LIBRARIES: 2019 DRAWS NOTABLE 125,000 APPLICANTS
James Patterson is personally donating $1.25 million, and Scholastic Book Clubs is matching with 1.25 million Bonus Points.
World’s bestselling author James Patterson and Scholastic Book Clubs, a division of Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, today announced that 4,500 teachers across the country have won Patterson Partnership grants to help build their classroom libraries. Four thousand teachers will each receive $250 in cash and 250 Scholastic Book Clubs Bonus Points—which they can use to purchase top quality, age appropriate books that are of dire need in their classrooms. An additional 500 “new” teachers with less than three years of teaching experience will each receive $500 in cash and 500 Bonus Points, giving them extra critical help early in their careers.
To learn more about the program and see the full list of grant recipients, visit: http://www.scholastic.com/pattersonpartnership/.
This school year marks the fifth annual installment of the Patterson Partnership, created to save classroom libraries and assist teachers in acquiring books and other materials desperately needed in their classrooms. According to the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report™, classroom libraries are only available for 43% of school-age children, and only one third of kids say they have access to a classroom library with enough of the types of books they’d like to read. The report makes the importance of classroom libraries clear, as across ages, kids who have robust classroom libraries are more likely to be frequent readers. Additionally, the Scholastic Teacher & Principal School Report revealed that on average, teachers surveyed spent $530 of their own money on items for classroom or student use, with teachers in high-poverty schools spending $672 and teachers in low-poverty schools spending $495.
James Patterson said, “I write children’s books with the sole goal of getting kids reading—by (hopefully) giving them a story they like to read, that in turn gets them to pick up another. But without teachers, who are first showing their students how to read, and second, giving them access to books in their classrooms, we’d be nowhere. So whether they’re pointing kids towards the right book, inspiring creativity, or encouraging kindness, teachers change lives every single day. And I’m humbled to be able to give back to them in some way.”
The 2019 Patterson/Scholastic Book Clubs campaign drew a total of nearly 125,000 applicants, with more than 26,000 applications coming from new teachers. To date, James Patterson has donated $7.25 million to school and classroom libraries through his partnership with Scholastic Book Clubs—this year brings that total to $8.5 million. Winners are encouraged to share how these funds transform their classroom libraries and energize their students through quality books and top-notch resources by using the hashtag #PattersonPledge.
“Thanks to James Patterson’s unwavering commitment and generosity, we’ve been able to expand our reach to teachers—including new teachers—across America with this year’s Patterson Partnership giveaway,” said Judy Newman, President and Reader in Chief of Scholastic Book Clubs. “This year we received nearly 125,000 entries, clearly indicating the continued critical help teachers need to acquire quality books for their classroom libraries. Every child deserves a classroom that gives them access to limitless independent reading opportunities, and teachers should not have to personally bear the burden of filling their classroom library shelves with books. Giving back to teachers is a core promise of Scholastic Book Clubs, which is why we feel so honored to partner with James Patterson and privileged to be able to extend James’s vision of literacy for all throughout the 850,000 classrooms Scholastic Book Clubs serves.”
To apply for the grant, teachers in US schools from PreK through grade 12 were asked to share in 50 characters or less how they planned on using the funds and Bonus Points to help build their classroom libraries. All funds are personally donated by James Patterson, and all Bonus Points are donated by Scholastic Book Clubs. The collaboration reflects Scholastic Book Clubs’ overall commitment to helping teachers through purposeful initiatives including the Teacher Advisory Board, which brings teacher input directly to Scholastic Book Clubs throughout the school year to ensure offerings are the best possible resource for teachers, and a Bonus Point system through which teachers earn funds from every book purchased through Scholastic Book Clubs to buy much needed classroom materials.
