Summit Hills Elementary (Idaho Falls) - Bucks for Books

This Donation will buy a book for Summit Hills Elementary in Idaho Falls. Their Librarian says "Our biggest challenge is purchasing books that students are interested in reading, that are within their reading level. They are more than willing to read graphic novels because they are not as difficult to read but they shy away from actual chapter books.
Because we have at least 10% of our students who are learning English as a second language and quite a few more that come from homes where only Spanish is spoken, we would also like to provide them with chapter books that they can read easily but that don't look too much like picture books.
We have some easy chapter books that we have purchased over the last 10 years with book fair money, as we have no other budget. The problem with this is that when using book fair funds, you are limited to the books that the book fair provides rather than the books we want or need for our students.
In researching books that we don't have that will benefit our students, we feel like this grant will help us more fully meet the needs of our students. With the grant money we will be able to purchase more level appropriate chapter books that will appeal to our students and our hope is that by reading those, they will be more confident in reading more advance chapter books."

In 2019, the Idaho Lottery learned 28 percent of Idaho elementary schools had a library budget of less than $100 per year for book procurement. In reality, it would take nearly $8,000 every year per school to maintain the library collection students need to succeed. With that in mind, the Idaho Lottery worked with the Idaho Commission for Libraries to start Bucks For Books. Literacy has been a focus of Idaho Governor Brad Little since he took office in 2019. Getting all Idaho students reading at grade level by the third grade is imperative as that is the point where students transition from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn. Having a well-stocked library and the ability for all students to take books home is crucial in getting all Idaho students where they need to be.