CLEVELAND — News 5 is once again partnering with two Title I schools here in Cleveland to bring Scholastic Book Fairs to their students through our “If You Give a Child a Book” Campaign. If you donate today, Sept. 4, our corporate owner’s charitable foundation the Scripps Howard Fund will match your donation!
We started this literacy campaign in 2017, first delivering a check to a literacy nonprofit in our area. We later started hosting those Scholastic Book Fairs, first at Wade Park School, then we expanded to Stephanie Tubbs Jones School as well.
I was there for their first book fair in January 2023, where scholars picked five free books each. I returned today to catch up with some of the first kids to enjoy that experience, including best friends and 8th graders Mikayla Johnson and Jo’Nezz Davis.
"I'm very grateful for that because some kids don't have books at home at stuff and that the books were free, like we didn't have to pay for them and stuff, and some kids from different districts have to pay for them,” Johnson said.
“If You Give a Child a Book” helps kids build their libraries at home and instills a life-long love of reading while helping set them up for future success.
They get to pick books that are meaningful to them.
“It was something about a girl, like a Black girl or something like that,” Jo’Nezz told Katie. “Something about how she’d take care of her hair, like how she’d treat herself…It’s like teaching you how to love yourself and stuff even though you got different skin tone from different people and people don’t like, accept that sometimes and it’s letting you know that it don’t matter what nobody say.”
I also sat down with 7th grader Camron Stearnes, whose brother I met at the last book fair. Camron said he currently loves reading Harry Potter.
“It’s magical,” he said before thanking everyone for supporting the “If You Give a Child a Book” campaign.
"The kids that don't have enough money to afford the books can have free books to take home to their family,” he said.
You can donate to our “If You Give a Child a Book” campaign by texting WEWS to 50155.
You can also CLICK HERE to donate through our website.
If you donate today, Sept. 4, the Scripps Howard Fund will match your donation.
