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Publishers Weekly Children's Features

Reading: What a Treat
Judith Rosen -- 8/24/98

Reading books has never been so sweet since Matt Lamstein started the Ice Cream Truck Summer Book Club, which he runs out of his Good Humor truck, for children in Portsmouth, N.H., and Kittery, Me. As reported in a recent story in the Boston Globe, for the 53-year-old Lamstein, who holds a master's degree in education, the club "gives an extra meaning to driving the truck, and for the kids, it gives them an incentive to read."

To join the club, children simply pick up an official club card from Lamstein. For each book that they read at or above their reading level, they earn a prize, plus their name is added to the Ice Cream Truck Book Club Honor Roll, which is taped to the front of the freezer. For reading one book, kids earn a lemon lime, cherry banana or bubble gum bar. Three books earn them any dollar bar, while for six books, kids can get anything on the house.

The Ice Cream Truck Summer Book Club may not have licked the problem of getting kids to read over the summer, but it has been all the incentive some young children have needed to tackle books ranging from Ramona Quimby, Age 8 to Clifford's Kitten and Jesus Loves Me.
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