Imagine yourself back in May: the buzz of summer is just around the corner, end-of-year celebrations mark another academic year gone by, and Book Harvest is traveling from school to school with over 100,000 new children’s books in tow.

Adding free books to an already exciting transition may seem too good to be true, but that’s exactly what our Books on Break program brought each child in partnering school districts and summer programs this year: 10 free books of their choice to keep forever. Critically, the summer reading inspired by these self-selected books is an effective strategy for lowering summer reading setback and narrowing the income-based achievement gap among students.

In 2025 alone, Books on Break reached 10,420 elementary school students in 30 schools across eight North Carolina counties with 104,200 new books. In addition, 7,320 students in summer programs across 47 NC counties self-selected 73,200 new books. To really understand these numbers, though, you’ll have to zoom in on the individual faces of joy and excitement in this video - then multiply.

“I wasn’t ready,” reflects Turquoise Parker, Media Coordinator at Lakewood Elementary, in the video. “I was looking around like, these are brand-new books! They don’t have to bring them back, and every child - in every class - gets ten of these. I was blown away.”

A huge thank you to our school district and organization partners featured in this video - Woodland Elementary School, Glenn Elementary School, Lakewood Elementary School, and the JES Avanti Foundation - and to Dwayne Johnson, Paula Januzzi-Godfrey, Turquoise Parker, and Brie Sanders for their words on the impact of Books on Break.

Books on Break is more than a program; it’s a movement toward book ownership for all. And your school can be a part of it, too! Learn more at https://www.bookharvest.org/books-on-break or email Rachel Stine, Senior Director of Books on Break, at rachel@bookharvest.org.