This feelgood story feels good to me... access to books seems to have a big effect on children's reading, even in the U.S. where books are ubiquitous.
Can a $50 stack of paperback books do as much for a child's academic fortunes as a $3,000 stint in summer school? An experimental program in seven states may help answer that question this summer as districts from Nevada to South Carolina give thousands of low-income students an armful of free books. Research has shown that simply giving children books may be as effective as summer school -- and a lot cheaper. The big question is whether the effect can be replicated on a larger scale and help reduce the USA's nagging achievement gap between low-income and middle-class students.
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