FILE - Author James Patterson appears astatine an lawsuit to beforehand his associated caller with erstwhile President Bill Clinton, "The President is Missing," successful New York connected June 5, 2018. Patterson donated $1.5 cardinal to Scholastic Book Clubs to motorboat The United States of Readers," a schoolroom programme designed to code literacy inequity. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Author James Patterson appears astatine an lawsuit to beforehand his associated caller with erstwhile President Bill Clinton, "The President is Missing," successful New York connected June 5, 2018. Patterson donated $1.5 cardinal to Scholastic Book Clubs to motorboat The United States of Readers," a schoolroom programme designed to code literacy inequity. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

NEW YORK – With a donation of $1.5 cardinal from writer James Patterson, Scholastic Book Clubs has launched “The United States of Readers," a schoolroom programme designed to code literacy inequity.

Scholastic announced Monday that United States of Readers volition assistance bring books to 32,000 kids nationwide, grades K-8, from low-income families.

“In truthful galore communities astir the state adjacent our affordable offerings are retired of scope for immoderate families, and teachers are having to wage for the books themselves,” Judy Newman, president and “Reader-in-Chief” of Scholastic Book Clubs, said successful a statement. “We knew we needed to travel up with an alternate to our tried and existent model, due to the fact that each kid needs to beryllium capable to take and ain books, and spot themselves arsenic a reader! The United States of Readers does conscionable that.”

Patterson, 1 of the world's bestselling novelists, has already donated much than $10 cardinal to teachers and students done Scholastic.

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“I’ve been moving my full vocation to get kids speechmaking due to the fact that I judge that illiteracy is 1 of the biggest challenges our state faces," helium said successful a statement. “And successful galore cases, kids simply request entree to books — and particularly books they privation to work — to autumn successful emotion with reading, characters, and stories. Through my concern with Scholastic these past 7 years, we’ve made immoderate large strides to bash that. And I’m peculiarly excited astir this caller programme arsenic it volition bring books to those schools and communities that request them the most, and ones that we haven’t served before.”

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https://unitedstatesofreaders.scholastic.com

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.