LATEST STATS: 1 founder / 2 schools / 3 years / 8 best-selling authors engaged / 29 sessions / 700 books donated to date
Raiareads Concept
I began thinking about Raiareads in my freshman year of high school, after finishing my first semester of English. I had always loved to read - would read anything I could get my hands on - but I noticed that a lot of my classmates were less enthusiastic. Maybe it was the long list of required reading. Maybe they had been limited in what they were allowed to read at home. Whatever the reason, I began to wish that middle school kids could be exposed to amazing books early on, so that their love of reading would be more developed by the time they hit high school. I like video games and sports as much as the next guy, but I'd honestly rather sit down with a great book than anything else and I wondered if that could also be instilled in younger kids.
Partner Schools
I reached out to two schools in 2014 - Mt. Carmel Holy-Rosary School in East Harlem, NY and Philip's Academy in Newark, NJ - and presented the idea of a monthly after-school book group aimed at developing enthusiastic 7th and 8th grade readers. Both schools approved the idea by my sophomore year, and we started rolling in January 2015. We focused on two types of books: books students will most likely be required to read freshman year, and books that they really should read during that year because they are awesome. Thanks to the teachers, the 25+ students who signed up in each section and the authors who answered our students' questions by email, our first year was a blast. Now in our third year in the classroom (and adding some new 6th grade students), I have enjoyed introducing even more young readers to some incredible books & authors.
- Lawrence Raia
Saddle River Day School '17
- Lawrence Raia
Saddle River Day School '17