2019 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Launched in 2004 as a response to the closing of school libraries in Philadelphia, WePAC works to mobilize nearly 200 volunteers to reopen and staff libraries in the area, serving more than 5,000 students and promoting positive reading habits with weekly library programming and special events.

With a focus on supporting literacy development, closing the gap between the resources available to Philadelphia public school students and those in neighboring districts, and sharing the joy of reading through the offering of high-quality books and programs, WePAC approaches each school library reopening with the goal of providing regular, sustainable library access for students. Working in under-resourced schools, WePAC coordinates the stocking of library books, the staffing of each location with committed volunteers, and the programming of special events that connect kids with authors, illustrators, local professionals, and others able to speak to the excitement and power of reading, highlighting the importance of literacy skills for future success.

2019 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

Oakland International High School (OIHS), whose student body is made up entirely of newly arrived immigrant and refugee students, partners its junior class with local elementary school students for a specialized reading curriculum that encourages the critical analysis of texts while also providing a comfortable space for high school students to sharpen their English, reading, and comprehension skills.

2019 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

Seven Stories Institute’s Word Up Community Bookshop is a volunteer-run, multilingual community bookshop and arts space in Washington Heights, New York City that works through literature to spark dialogue, cultivate education, and inspire community in neighborhoods without easy access to books.

2018 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

The Academy of American Poets launched Teach This Poem in 2015 as a free resource that helps teachers and students actively integrate poetry into their educational lives. With over 27,000 teachers subscribed, Teach This Poem digitally distributes a weekly poem accompanied by unique curriculum and related teaching materials such as artwork, maps, and photographs curated by the Academy staff and their Educator in Residence, Dr. Mady Holzer. Poems are selected to address timely topics, and classroom activities are designed to provide cross-disciplinary strategies for incorporating poetry into daily school work and encourage not only the appreciation of poetry, but also the development of creative and critical thinking skills.

Academy of American Poets: www.poets.org
Teach This Poem: www.poets.org/poetsorg/teach-poem 

2018 Innovations in Reading Honorable Mention

aprisonbookproject.wordpress.com

2018 Innovations in Reading Honorable Mention

Friends of the Homer Library, based in Homer, Alaska, reaches out to communities without easy access to the library’s resources, including outreach to Old Russian Believer families in remote villages outside the Homer area, whose schools do not have school libraries.

friendshomerlibrary.org

Jewish Women International’s National Library Initiative has opened 70 children’s libraries in domestic violence shelters throughout the country since 2005, providing safe and stable literary environments for mothers and families.

jwi.org/nli

2018 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

Words Without Borders Campus facilitates the building of cultural understanding through contemporary international literature with a free, online resource available to students and educators that features English translations of international texts.

wwb-campus.org

2017 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Barbershop Books’ mission is to help black boys ages 4-8 to identify as readers by connecting books and reading to a male-centered space and by involving men in boys’ early reading experiences.

barbershopbooks.org

2017 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

Books@Work builds human capacity to imagine, innovate and connect, strengthening a culture of trust, respect and inclusion, at work and in the community. In professor-led literature discussions, Books@Work participants challenge assumptions, share their stories, experience mutual recognition and practice critical dialogue, without judgment.

www.booksatwork.org

2018 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

Learning Ally’s mission is to promote personal achievement when access and reading are barriers to learning by advancing the use of effective and accessible educational solutions. Our vision is for all people to have equal opportunities to learn. Quite simply, Learning Ally provides students with print-related disabilities access to required coursework through audio textbooks, technology solutions, and holistic support services that empower them to achieve their personal best.

Through the human-narrated audiobooks and gamification, Learning Ally’s Great Reading Games motivates students with reading disabilities to impact their reading frequency and duration of 20 minutes each day, driving improved reading habits and providing a platform where a love of reading can be nurtured. This year, more than 16,000 students in more than 1,300 schools read five million pages during the competition, nearly quadrupling the result totals from last year.

learningally.org/Educators/Great-Reading-Games

2017 Innovations in Reading Honorable Mention

Poetry in Motion engages over 8,000,000 transit riders nationwide with pithy poems posted in place of advertising on public transit systems in cities around the country. What the program provides—the unique and unexpected opportunity to read poetry and to engage with dynamic, excellent literature as a community, and even to find private meaning in the midst of a city’s public places—remains precious to many. Currently the program runs in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Portland, Oregon, and will make its debut in San Francisco in 2018.

poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/poetry_in_motion

2017 Innovations in Reading Honorable Mention

Reach Out and Read’s mission is to give young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.

With Reach Out and Read, medical providers give books to children at more than 10 well-child visits from infancy until they start school. Currently serving 4.7 million children and their families in the U.S., half of whom are from low-income families, Reach Out and Read aims to ensure that no child in our country misses the experience of sharing a story on the lap of a loved one.

reachoutandread.org

Winner of the 2016 Innovations in Reading Prize

Next Chapter Book Club (NCBC) is the signature program of Chapters Ahead, an Ohio-based nonprofit organization. NCBC provides individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities opportunities for lifelong learning, social connections and authentic community engagement through weekly book club meetings. Even non-readers are able to experience the pleasure of books through innovative facilitation techniques like “echo reading.”

nextchapterbookclub.org

 

2016 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

The HPA is a non-profit organization that uses the power of story to turn fans into heroes. Using inspiration from stories like Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, and more, they strive to make the world better through activism and community engagement. Through HPA campaigns, young people have donated 250,000 books to libraries and literacy organizations worldwide, organized over 20,000 YouTube video creators and fans to advocate for net neutrality, made over 3,000 phone calls for marriage equality, and convinced Warner Bros. to switch their Harry Potter chocolates to Fair Trade or UTZ-certified sources. There are over 200 chapters in 22 countries on six continents. There are over 200 chapters in 22 countries on 6 continents.

thehpalliance.org

2016 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

LGBT Books to Prisoners sends books and educational material to LGBTQ-identified people in prisons across the country. This work seeks to affirm the dignity of all individuals – particularly the over-incarcerated populations of people of color, poor people, queer and gender nonconforming people, and people with mental illnesses – by providing access to free literature of their choosing.

lgbtbookstoprisoners.org

2016 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

Traveling Stories is dedicated to helping kids fall in love with reading by the fourth grade. We set up StoryTents at farmers markets in low-income neighborhoods and offer free reading support. At the StoryTent, children read with volunteers, their parents or other children. For every book read, they earn a book buck, which can be redeemed for prizes. Through this, children not only become better readers but they also develop basic money management skills.

travelingstories.org

Winner of the 2015 Innovations in Reading Prize

Based in Washington, D.C., Reach Incorporated develops grade-level readers and capable leaders by preparing teens to serve as tutors and role models for younger students, resulting in improved literacy outcomes for both.

reachincorporated.org

Honorable Mention for the 2015 Innovations in Reading

The APBF promotes and advances the development and publication of the poetic arts of Africa through its book series, contests, workshops, and seminars and through its collaborations with publishers, festivals, booking agents, colleges, universities, conferences and all other entities that share an interest in the poetic arts of Africa.

africanpoetrybf.unl.edu

Honorable Mention for the 2015 Innovations in Reading Prize

Call Me Ishmael documents our relationship to literature and how it shapes our lives by urging readers to call into the service and talk about what their favorite book means to them. Founders Logan Smalley and Stephanie Kent then convert the calls into videos, with each transcript scrolling on a vintage typewriter, in order to share online the powerful and deeply personal experience of reading.

Learn more.

2015 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

Lambda Literary nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers and readers through a writers retreat and the Lamda Literary Review, a free online journal promoting LGBTQ literature.

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2015 Innovations in Reading Prize Honorable Mention

Motionpoems explores the space between poets and visual artists to create hybrid artworks that mix poetry and animation to connect with contemporary audiences in new ways.

motionpoems.org

2014 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Blue Star Families’ program Blue Star Books facilitates stress relief, self-expression, and dialogue among military children by hosting reading events, distributing free books, and holding national reading contests for military children.

bluestarfam.org

2014 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Books for Kids creates libraries, donates books, and implements literacy programs to develop the critical early foundation and skills young children need to be successful in life.

booksforkids.org

2014 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Chicago Books to Women in Prison (CBWP) is a volunteer-led collective that
provides paperback books to women incarcerated in the U.S. prison system.

chicagobwp.org

 

2014 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Launched in 2006, Hopa Mountain’s StoryMakers program is a proven early learning program that currently provides critically needed resources and support to rural and tribal parents/caregivers of 11,000+ of Montana’s children ages 0-5.

hopamountain.org/storymakers

2014 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Las Camadres connects Latinas around the world through the National Latino Book Club and Teleconference Series, which offer a wide range of literary activities for approximately 1,500 book club members in more than eighteen cities.

lascomadres.com/lco/

2013 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization that inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges around the world.

Learn more.

 

2013 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

The Uni is a portable reading room for New York City. Conceived of and run by Leslie and Sam Davol, the purpose of the Uni is to provide a new kind of amenity for city residents, while fostering a stronger, more prominent
culture of reading and learning at street level.

theuniproject.org

 

2013 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Reading Is the Way Up was started in 2002 to address the plight of school libraries and the lack of current and compelling books available to students. To date, the program has placed over 170,000 books into the hands of students.

cnb.com/about/literacy-program/ritwu.asp

2013 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

The Uprise Books Project was founded in 2011 with a very simple mission: to encourage underprivileged teens to read by providing them with new banned and challenged books.

2013 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Worldreader is a nonprofit created in 2010 whose mission is to make digital books (via e-readers and mobile phones) available to children and their families in the developing world, so millions of people can improve their lives. Worldreader combines new technologies, the mobile phone networks, and declining costs to provide immediate access to hundreds of thousands of local textbooks, storybooks, and international literature.

worldreader.org

2012 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

 

2012 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

At only fifteen, Lilli Leight amassed a "giving library" for kids at the Chapman Partnership, a nonprofit safe haven for families facing housing and job setbacks. Lilli's work allowed children to read and own a wide array of new and used books and inspired many of her peers to donate and volunteer at the Chapman Partnership.

 

2012 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Reading Against the Odds is a reading discussion group geared toward students who are in the Adult Literacy program at Literacy Chicago. The goal of the group is to enhance literacy, critical thinking skills, self-awareness, and interpersonal connections through group-based discussion of thematically arranged novels by diverse authors.

readingagainsttheodds.com

2012 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Real Men Read targets children between the ages of three and five who are enrolled in urban child care centers in Memphis, and is designed to engage these children in the joy and excitement of reading with the goal of helping them become lifelong readers.

2012 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Street Books is a bicycle-powered mobile library serving people who live outside in Portland, Oregon. Founded in June 2011, the street library offers a means to check out books for patrons who are unable to do so from regular libraries because they lack identification or proof of address.

streetbooks.org

2011 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Electric Literature is a nonprofit digital publisher dedicated to making literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive by publishing intelligent and unpretentious work, elevating new voices, and examining how literature and storytelling can help illuminate social justice issues.

electricliterature.com

2011 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Kore Press, Inc is an innovative print and online literary publishing house celebrating multiple feminist expressions from creative writers and thinkers that span practices, aesthetics, sexualities, races, and ethnicities. For the last 25 years, the work and mission of Kore Press has been to provide a progressive platform for diverse literary and cultural work by  women and transgendered writers, and to create innovative programming that puts different communities in conversation.

korepress.org

2011 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

The My Own Book program provides field trips for third grade classes in the New York City public schools to Barnes & Noble bookstores where each child is given a $50 allowance to purchase their very own books.

fdnweb.org/myownbook

2011 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Founded in 2010, the Young Adult Reading Network (YARN) is the first independent online literary journal dedicated to young adult (YA) literature; they publish short fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews, as well as an editors’ blog and lesson plans for teachers.

yareview.net

2010 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

826 Valencia is a nonprofit writing and tutoring center dedicated to helping students ages 6 to 18 improve their writing skills, and to fostering a lifelong passion for reading and writing.

826valencia.org

2010 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Cellpoems is a poetry journal distributed via text message and on the Web that publishes original work by some of the world’s best established poets. By publishing poems of just 140 characters or less, Cellpoems does not aim to decrease readers’ attention spans; rather, it adds focused, distilled work to a grand tradition of short poems, from the tanka and haiku to the monosonnet, and aims to present poetry to as many readers as possible by making it easily accessible to digitally-minded readers.

cellpoems.org

2010 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Free Minds uses books, creative writing, and peer support to awaken DC youth incarcerated as adults to their own potential. Through creative expression, job readiness training, and violence prevention outreach, these young poets achieve their education and career goals, and become powerful voices for change in the community.

freemindsbookclub.org

2010 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Mount Olive Baptist is a small church in a rural community in South Carolina where the nearest library branch is 10 miles away. In order to give children more exposure to books, the church membership took the bull by the horns and created their own children’s library by going to garage sales and buying books, dictionaries, and a set of encyclopedias.

 

2010 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

United Through Reading connects military families who are separated - for deployment or military assignment - by providing
the bonding experience of shared storytime.

unitedthroughreading.org

2009 Innovations in Reading Prize Winner

Created by James Patterson, ReadKiddoRead.com is an easy, hassle-free place where parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians will find the very best books to turn their kids into lifelong, dedicated readers.

Learn more