I love this kid! How do we help our patrons to be this involved in literacy??
“An 11-year-old from St. Louis wants to celebrate black books and improve the literacy rate among other boys at the same time.
Sidney Keys III started his own reading club for boys called Books N Bros to show his peers that reading can be fun.
Sidney told radio program “St. Louis on the Air” earlier this month that “every time I go to the library at my school, there aren’t many African American literature books there.” After a visit to EyeSeeMe, a bookstore in University City, Missouri, that promotes African American children’s literature, he yearned to see more of himself reflected in books.
Sidney’s mom, Winnie Caldwell, shot a video of him reading in the store in August that gained more than 62,000 views. She told the program that her son had never been to a store that housed so many books that reflected his culture.
Caldwell said her son immediately had the idea to form a book club, using EyeSeeMe as their designated bookstore, after the video gained popularity. They did some research and decided to target boys 8-10, around the age their reading skills begin to lag behind girls.
Since September, the club has met monthly to discuss one book with a black protagonist, which they vote on. Some of the books the club has read so far are Hidden Figures, The Supadupa Kid and A Song for Harlem: Scraps of Time, which they read during Black History Month.’