CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia elementary school students will receive an array of free books this summer.
The state Department of Education is entering the second year of the West Virginia Blue Ribbon Book Club, distributing 258,000 books to public school children entering grades one through three.
Books will be shipped by the end of this month. Teachers also will receive books in order to create lesson plans for the upcoming school year, the department said in a news release.
“This year, we were able to expand the program to include our third graders, which means more books in the hands of our youngest learners,” state schools Superintendent Clayton Burch said.
The book club is a partnership between the department, the Marshall University June Harless Center and The Dollywood Foundation.
The department also has included a lineup of celebrity readers on its website, including West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins and men’s soccer coach Chris Grassie of national champion Marshall.
