Worldwide best-selling author Dav Pilkey and Scholastic rewarded Gladstone Street Elementary School as the winning school in Rhode Island in the Dav Pilkey Summer Reading Educator Contest. The prize will provide Gladstone Street Elementary School a set of 500 books to build their school library and help kick off summer reading. The contest is in support of the 2017 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge – a free online and mobile summer reading program that helps kids take a “summer leap” into books and keep kids reading-ready during the summer months. Parents and educators can learn more about the challenge and sign-up kids to participate at www.scholastic.com/summer.

Despite conventional wisdom, six in 10 children ages 6–17 agree “I really enjoy reading books over the summer,” according to the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report: 6th Edition, but too many kids lack access to books when school is not in session. In support of the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, author Dav Pilkey pledged to help get books into the hands of kids across the country before the summer break. One school in each U.S. state, territory and in the District of Columbia was selected to win an array of popular, age-appropriate Scholastic titles to build their school library. More than 6,000 educators entered the contest. Applicants were asked to fill out an online application responding to the prompt: “Tell us about your school and the need for new books to help your students keep reading over the summer.” The contest ran from March 15 through April 14. Any U.S. school with students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade was eligible as an entrant. The full list of winners is available online at http://scholastic.com/summer/contest/teacher.