My Own Book: Take a Kid to Book Heaven

If your idea of a good time is going to a bookstore, imagine going with thirty 3rd graders - many who have never been to a bookstore before. It's exhilarating, awe-inspiring, smile producing, hope-inducing, and exhausting. And as soon as it's over, you'll want to do it again.

My Own Book partners with New York City public schools in economically disadvantaged areas to take 3rd grade classes on field trips to bookstores where each child picks out $60 worth of books to start their own home library. With a book of their choice close at hand to read over and over again, love of reading grows and grows.

That is the aim of My Own Book, pure and simple: to share a love of reading. And we're looking for volunteers who want to do just that.

Volunteers work in pairs with a partner school. They visit to speak with teachers and students to go over the program, they accompany them to the bookstore, and they follow up a month later to hear all about what the kids have been reading. Volunteering at one school requires a time commitment of about six weekday mornings over a two months period.

There are volunteer opportunities in all five boroughs.

For more information, please visit our website: http://www.mobf.org/

If you are interested in volunteering, please email ascotti@myownbooks.org.