For the fifth year in a row, the National Book Foundation has bestowed its Innovations in Reading Prizes to groups “creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading.”
Follow these links to explore the five winning projects: City National Bank for Reading Is the Way Up program, the Little Free Library movement, the Uni Project portable reading room, the Uprise Books Project for underprivileged teens and the Worldreader nonprofit. Each group will receive a $2,500 award, a certificate and a free trip to New York City to share their work with “funders, other people in the field, and reporters.” Here’s more about the Uni Project:
The Uni is a portable reading room for New York City conceived of and run by Leslie and Sam Davol. It provides a new kind of amenity for city residents, while fostering a stronger, more prominent culture of reading and learning. The Uni consists of lightweight cubes that serve as shelves and stack to create a place to gather. Benches provide seating, and volunteers act as hosts. The people who gather around are transformed into readers on a kind of stage, and neighborhoods are transformed into places where the value of reading and learning is recognized, promoted, and shared.