CLAY COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Students at Paces Creek Elementary in Clay County filled the school library with excitement on Wednesday as they selected brand new books — five each — completely free through a special book fair program.
The "If You Give a Child a Book" campaign, a partnership between LEX 18, the Scripps Howard Fund and Scholastic Books, provides free book fairs to Title I schools like Paces Creek to help children build home libraries and remove financial barriers that prevent some families from accessing books.
"We're very appreciative of the opportunity that this brings to our students. The opportunity to read, the opportunity to have a resource to read, and we're very appreciative for the opportunity of the diversity of the books that they bring to the students. So we're just overall blessed with this program," Principal Aaron Asher said.
The program aims to spark a lifelong love of reading while addressing the reality that technology dominates many students' daily experiences.
"I think students are so exposed to technology this day and time that they really do get more excited about books because this is something that they may not receive at home and they may not receive, get as much exposure to. So this is something that really brings a different perspective to the students and a different excitement to them," Asher said.
Third-grader Livi has participated in the free book fair for the past three years and has built an impressive collection.
"I have a whole drawer," Livi said.
This year, she's hoping to add "Dog Man" books to her growing library.
Paces Creek has participated in this program for several years, helping hundreds of students discover new possibilities through reading. As fifth-grader Paislee put it simply: "Just read!"
The program demonstrates how a simple gift — a stack of books — can fuel big dreams for the future, one book at a time.
