Penguin Random House has launched Read and Lead, a new partnership with Kiwanis International, a global organization that advocates for literacy and civic engagement among youth in 82 countries.
The Read and Lead program was created in conjunction with Kiwanis K-Kids clubs, peer-run service groups for kids ages 9–12 in the United States. The program will feature literacy kits with children’s nonfiction and fiction books from Penguin Young Readers and Random House Children’s Books. The program currently features five different kits with a curated list of thematically tied books. The themes are Bullying Prevention (books include Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me and Vince Vawter’s Paperboy); The Environment (with titles from Chelsea Clinton, Jean Craighead George, and more); Literacy (including Chris Grabenstein’s Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library); Hunger (featuring Patricia Reilly Giff’s Nory Ryan’s Song); and Ordinary People Change the World (tied to Brad Meltzer’s Ordinary People Change the World series).
The kits also offer supplemental material designed to motivate readers to kick off their own community service projects. The kits may be purchased online at the Read & Lead web site. In addition to providing books for the kits, Penguin Random House is donating an additional 500 books to Kiwanis clubs. In a statement, Adrienne Waintraub, executive director of school and library marketing at Penguin Random House, said of the partnership: “With this exciting inaugural program, we look forward to offering Kiwanis Kids—and their adult leaders—books that reinforce the group’s important focus on leadership, improved self-esteem, and civic reasonability.”
