Certain students in Alachua County have the chance to receive free books through a Florida reading program. But the deadline for doing so is rapidly approaching.
Administered by the UF Lastinger Center for Learning, New Worlds Reading is a free literacy program that sends free books and reading resources to the homes of eligible VPK through fifth-grade students across the state.
“We mail free books and resources in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Braille,” Robin Gregory, Assistant Director for the New Worlds Reading Initiative at the Lastinger Center, said in an interview with Mainstreet. “The goal is to help kids build their reading skills and reading confidence.”
Gregory said they mail nine books and reading resources throughout the school year, adding they’ve had the chance in previous years to send out bonus books during the summer.
She said families who apply by the July 12 deadline will still be eligible to receive all nine books from the 2025-26 school year, plus two bonus books and a Highlights magazine.
As for the kind of books that are sent to families, Gregory explained it as a joint effort between organizations and companies.
“We curate a full set of books for each grade level, and those books are approved by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE),” she said. “We select those books in collaboration with Scholastic. They are our partners, where we source the books, and then they are responsible for shipping those books out to students at their homes.”
Gregory also touched on the type of resources that are sent with the books.
“We currently have a content development team who is responsible for creating what we call ‘family reading guides’ that go along with the books,” she said. “We send a specific book, and it pairs with that…family reading guide, and they create activities, word work, comprehension [and] vocabulary. They just focus on specific aspects to build skills according to the content that is included in the book.”
Since its start in 2021, Gregory said New Worlds Reading has been able to send 15 million books to more than 500,000 students statewide.
Gregory touched on the impact the program has made.
“We see that students that are enrolled in the program, they see significant reading achievement gains of up to 62%,” she said.
Gregory explained that students in VPK through fifth grade are eligible for the New Worlds Reading program if they are part of a VPK program, attend a public or charter school, and have tested below grade level in reading at any point since August 2021.
According to Gregory, 80% of Florida charter and public-school students in VPK through fifth grade are eligible for the program.
In Alachua County, nearly 11,000 children are eligible for the New Worlds Reading program, with 4,335 currently enrolled, according to Rowan Ravenswood, communications coordinator for the New Worlds Reading Initiative.
She said there are 13,000 students in Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) in VPK through fifth grade.
For more information about New Worlds Reading or to apply, click here.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.