[ti:Publisher Aims to Help Poor Children Read More Books]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]A donation by a famous writer has helped start an effort,
[00:05.76]called the United States of Readers,
[00:09.88]to help poor children read more books.
[00:15.16]The classroom program is being launched
[00:18.84]by Scholastic Book Clubs
[00:21.64]with a donation of $1.5 million
[00:26.36]from the writer James Patterson.
[00:30.40]Scholastic announced the program recently.
[00:34.80]It aims to bring books to 32,000 poor children
[00:40.40]who are in kindergarten to eighth grade.
[00:44.92]Judy Newman is president of Scholastic Book Clubs.
[00:50.08]She said in a statement that in many communities
[00:54.96]people do not have enough money to buy books.
[00:59.52]So she said her company
[01:02.92]"needed to come up with an alternative
[01:06.24]to our tried and true model,
[01:09.16]because every child needs to be able
[01:12.48]to choose and own books,
[01:14.96]and see themselves as a reader!"
[01:20.56]Scholastic is a large publisher of books
[01:24.08]for children and educational materials.
[01:29.00]Its goal is to get books into schools to increase literacy.
[01:36.40]The company has publishing rights
[01:39.08]in the U.S. for books like
[01:42.60]the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series.
[01:48.60]A gift by Patterson helped start the new program.
[01:54.00]He is credited with selling millions of books.
[01:58.60]He has already donated more than $10 million
[02:03.08]to teachers and students through Scholastic.
[02:09.08]He said in a statement
[02:10.96]that he has supported literacy for many years.
[02:15.32]He believes reading skills are important for the country.
[02:22.64]"In many cases, kids simply need access to books
[02:27.72]— and especially books they want to read
[02:31.72]— to fall in love with reading, characters, and stories."
[02:38.92]Patterson added that the program
[02:42.44]"will bring books to those schools and communities
[02:46.88]that need them the most,
[02:49.36]and ones that we haven't served before."
[02:54.56]Scholastic describes the program on its website.
[02:59.44]It says the United States of Readers program
[03:03.92]targets children in schools serving poor communities
[03:09.40]that receive federal educational money.
[03:13.80]The company said it has chosen a limited number
[03:17.96]of schools to take part this year
[03:21.08]but hopes to expand the program in the coming years.
[03:28.08]I'm Mario Ritter Jr.
[03:30.36]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM