This week, nearly 500 kids were able to take home books and snacks thanks to the Johnson City Schools’ BookWorm Mobile.

Young readers look through the crates of books offered by volunteers at the BookWorm Mobile. Johnson City Schools’ BookWorm Mobile has had a successful summer.

The BookWorm Mobile offered something for readers of all ages at each of its stops this week.

This week, nearly 500 kids were able to take home books and snacks thanks to the Johnson City Schools’ BookWorm Mobile.

Young readers look through the crates of books offered by volunteers at the BookWorm Mobile. Johnson City Schools’ BookWorm Mobile has had a successful summer.

The BookWorm Mobile offered something for readers of all ages at each of its stops this week.

Johnson City Schools’ BookWorm Mobile has finished another fun-filled summer tour of Johnson City.

As the start of a new school year approaches, many summer camps and programs have come to an end. Johnson City Schools fired up the BookWorm Mobile this week in an effort to keep kids reading throughout the summer.

“We were brainstorming ideas of how to keep books in the hands of kids,” said Nancy Miles, “and we just decided to have a week where we went to different parks throughout the city to offer another book distribution method in addition to summer school.”

Miles has served Johnson City Schools this summer as the assistant principal for summer camps, and she has been heavily involved in all the programs like the BookWorm Mobile. During the regular school year, Miles is a fifth grade math and science teacher at Southside Elementary.

“I love to read myself,” she said. “As a child, in the summertime I always signed up for the library programs. Being a teacher, even at the fifth grade level, I still love to do read-alouds and help kids find a series that they like.”

Any kids who came to the BookWorm tent were able to pick out two books to take home for free as well as a snack and bottle of water. The books were organized by grade levels from preschool to eighth grade, but kids were encouraged to take home whatever interested them.

Miles recalled a little boy who had found a hardback copy of the Christmas classic “The Polar Express.” She said that he kept hugging the book to his chest, and he told her he couldn’t wait to take it home and surprise his mom who had been saving up to buy that very book.

“I just love it when a kid gets excited about reading, and I know where it can take them if they’re a good reader and they keep it up throughout life,” said Miles.

While Johnson City Schools are still waiting for the arrival of the new 24-passenger bus that will become the new face of the BookWorm Mobile, volunteers have been in various locations throughout the city this week with crates of free books for kids.

These locations were picked in coordination with the scheduling of other programs such as the Johnson City Parks and Recreation summer camp, which brought kids to the Legion Street Pool on Thursday. This was all in an effort to get as many books in the hands of as many kids as possible.

These books have been donated to the BookWorm Mobile by community partners including families, teachers, school librarians and local booksellers. The snacks that were distributed at each location were courtesy of the Johnson City Public Schools Foundation and the Bank of Tennessee.

“We really appreciate the community for their donations and the volunteers that have helped this week,” said Miles. “I appreciate everyone coming together for the sake of kids — because that’s really what it’s all about.”

By Miles’ estimate, between 400 and 500 students were able to take home books this week.

She said that the program has been very well received since the beginning, and it continues to go strong thanks to the excitement and enthusiasm from both kids and their parents. Miles said that programs like this are important because books have the power to “take kids to a different world” and to fuel their imagination and enthusiasm for learning.

While the BookWorm Mobile has been mostly a summer program, Miles said that Johnson City Schools are working on plans to keep it running throughout the school year. But in the meantime, kids can look forward to the program’s return next summer.

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