The Bibb County School District’s Taylor Elementary and Burdell-Hunt Magnet Schools have been selected to receive the 2019 Back to School Reading Initiative Grant from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. The state department collaborates with the Share the Magic Foundation/Read with Malcolm organization to generate excitement about reading. Read with Malcolm’s statewide Community Reading Day is October 25, 2019.

Author and Super Bowl Champion Malcolm Mitchell considers a love of reading to be his greatest achievement. In 2016, he founded the Share the Magic Foundation with a sole purpose: to transform children’s lives through literacy. The Foundation’s mission is to inspire young people to read by bringing book ownership to students in Title I schools through Read with Malcolm literacy programs. Whether a student is a striving reader or learns differently, the Read with Malcolm literacy programs provide both inspiration and motivation, and carry the message that reading is the key to achieving one’s goals.

On October 25, second-graders from Taylor and Burdell-Hunt will all receive a hardback copy of Malcolm Mitchell’s book, The Magician’s Hat. Teachers also will receive standards-based vocabulary and writing lessons to incorporate in their curriculum. Second grade students at Taylor will gather from 10-10:45 a.m. in their school library to watch a motivational video from Mitchell and then have the opportunity to read along with him through an animated video. Students at Burdell-Hunt will take part in the activities in their individual classrooms from 1:30-2:15 p.m.