Pageturner books is such a brilliant idea, getting used Kindles into kids’ hands and giving them the books they most want to read. It has been gratifying helping out a little bit as a volunteer. I know that the org is doing good because getting young people to develop a love for reading will benefit them throughout their lives.
I love Pageturnerbooks.org, a small but growing educational program in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pageturnerbooks.org was founded by a teacher dedicated to coaching students for more than two decades. The program provides e-readers to middle and high school students and buys eBooks they request through their schools. This generation, born to computers, is more comfortable reading from screens than from physical books. EBooks are easier to transport, easier to hold while reading, provide privacy to help prevent bullying of students who may read faster or slower than others, and can be obtained and/or returned MUCH faster than books! Reading is a deeply personal experience; e-readers help students develop reading skills at their own pace-- and eBooks appear to accelerate that learning. Pageturner also maintains a rapidly expanding online library on behalf of all students who cycle through the program; teachers can make recommendations to their students based on their individual reading levels, and eBooks are delivered directly to each student's assigned e-reader.
The concept is simple, but the reality takes effort. Thousands of e-readers have been donated to Pageturner; those they can’t use are redistributed to other nonprofits and public libraries. Each e-reader is uniquely identified, while students get a school-distributed, numerical ID. Volunteers are needed for all that labeling! --and also for buying eBooks and helping to maintain the library. Of course, buying eBooks also takes money; Pageturner currently hopes to raise $35,000 for the start of the new school year this fall.
I know no better way to teach than this: for an entire community to engage in uplifting children by giving them agency to self-select what they read, encouraging them to become better people through the responsibility of choice and a life-long love of reading.
I've been a supporter for about 7 years, and am thrilled by the progress and impact Pageturner has made. As I understand it, last year Pageturner had over 1300 students enrolled in its free program--they get Kindles and access to all the books they want to read. As an avid reader, encouraging young people to explore all there is to find in the world of books is very important to me. Supporting Pageturner lets me spread that encouragement to so many more students than I could possibly reach on my own. Keep up the great work.
I'm a teacher at a Title I school in Oakland. Pageturner gave Kindles to every 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade student at my school, ensuring that they had a wealth of books to read during the COVID shut-down of schools and beyond. Not only did this allow us to create a lending library of digital books at a variety of reading levels, subjects, and languages, but it also gave us access to Kindle-specific accessibility features, such as the dictionary feature and the text-to-speech feature. The folks at Pageturner were responsive and helpful as we set up the Kindles, rolled out the program with students, and addressed issues that cropped up along the way.
When I saw an article in the Washington Post a number of years ago I was intrigued by the recycling of older Kindles for students. I quickly searched my house and sent several off.
I am a huge proponent of supporting children’s reading both in the classroom and at home. In fact I was literally just giving kudos to Pageturner yesterday (many years after I first heard about the organization). I continue to think about the importance of the work this organization is doing.
Bravo!
I made my first of three Kindle donations in 2016. I became involved as a volunteer in 2022, and have had the pleasure of working closely with Pageturner’s Board of Trustees and other volunteers on numerous projects. Over the past 18 months, I have seen first-hand the care and professionalism my volunteer colleagues bring to the program. I have had the opportunity to engage with many of our supporters who express such enthusiasm for our mission to encourage independent reading, exploration, and discovery among young people. I have heard from our classroom teacher partners how much value Pageturner adds to the education process. And, I have heard from current and former student participants about the joy and meaning that reading has added to their young lives. One former student wrote to tell us that in the four years she participated in the program, she read 500 books, and was about to purchase a new Kindle to continue her exploration of the world of books. That is what Pageturner is all about.
The people at Pageturner have been working tirelessly behind the scenes for a long time providing this service before it was cool or easy to do so! As a classroom teacher I have been able to provide access to thousands of books to hundreds of kids over the years - Pageturner has been the ONLY LIBRARY MY SCHOOL HAS for many years.