CONTACT:

Scholastic
Mike Barrett, 212-343-6570, mbarrett@scholastic.com

We Need Diverse Books
Lamar Giles, lrgileswriter@gmail.com
Dhonielle Clayton, dhonielle.clayton@gmail.com

NEW YORK – November 3, 2015 – Recent research indicates that children say one of the top things they look for in choosing books to read for fun is “having characters that look like me.”¹ Scholastic Reading Club and the non-profit organization, We Need Diverse Books™, are teaming-up this holiday season with a specially curated book club flyer, for grades 4-8, to provide more than 75 books that feature diverse characters and storylines.

Featuring award-winning titles, beloved classics and new releases, this special edition Scholastic Reading Club flyer will reach more than 100,000 classrooms and 2.5 million students in time for the holidays. The collection showcases a wide variety of titles highlighting important themes about race and ethnicity, multiculturalism, different religions, LGBTQ stories, individuals with disabilities and more. The range of titles and the diversity of the authors will resonate with the widely diverse population of young readers served by Scholastic Reading Club through schools nationwide and help them understand and appreciate people, cultures and experiences different from their own. Additional titles beyond those featured in the flyers will be available online at Scholastic.com/ReadingClub. All book orders are submitted by a teacher on behalf of his or her classroom, and, for every purchase, the classroom earns reward points that are redeemable for books and other classroom materials.

“The goal of this offer is to reflect the world as it is: filled with stories and experiences as diverse as you find in American classrooms today,” said Ann Marie Wong, Editorial Director, Scholastic Reading Club, a division of Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company. “Scholastic Reading Club evokes such strong emotional memories for children when they find the perfect book for the first time. This special collaboration with We Need Diverse Books™ helps all kids discover the power and joy of reading.”

"We are thrilled to partner with Scholastic on the Reading Club flyer, and to help all kids find both mirrors of their own experiences and windows into the experiences of others," said Dhonielle Clayton, Vice President of Librarian Services for We Need Diverse Books™.

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For more information about Scholastic Reading Club, please visit http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/ScholasticReadingClub.

REFERENCE:

• (1) Kids & Family Reading Report, 5^th edition conducted by YouGov and Scholastic, 2014. Things Children Look for When Picking Out Books to Read for Fun (Base: Children Ages 6-17)

About We Need Diverse Books™
We Need Diverse Books™ is a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people. For more information, visit http://weneeddiversebooks.org/