During the holiday breaks, some children lose access to books. By using BookSmart, families and caregivers can provide access to thousands of books in English and Spanish. Share our upcoming webinar with families in your communities so they can Get BookSmart During the Holidays!

Join the Florida GLR staff for a 20-minute tutorial on accessing BookSmart, the new FREE digital book platform that is available in multiple languages and has fun family engagement recommendations for most books.

November is Family Engagement Month in Florida! We think that makes this the perfect time to announce the launch of our new Family Engagement page on our website! Here, users will find information on our latest projects geared towards families and caregivers, BookSmart and EarlyCare.

Family engagement is key for helping children build strong reading skills. That’s why the Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign is proud to share BookSmart and EarlyCare resources at no cost to families across the state.

FGLRC Community Success Stories and News

FGRLC would like to showcase the work of some of our local GLR campaign communities. Last month was JumpStart's Read for the Record!

Broward County and Duval County did a great job reading for the record!

Children's Services Council of Broward County partnered with Broward County Public Schools and other early childhood stakeholders to provide funding for an estimated 40,000 young readers to have their very own copies of the book “With Lots of Love” 

ReadJax held an event at a Jacksonville Public Library and livestreamed a reading of "With Lots of Love" so children and families across the county could participate!

Florida GLR would like to extend a warm welcome to Kiana Kelly, the new Martin READS! Coordinator in Martin County!

The national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is excited to announce the communities that are 2022-2023 Pacesetter Finalists. These communities shared clear examples of exceptional work aligning with at least one of our seven “Must Do Priorities” for Early School Success:  

• Ensure that fewer children start school so far behind 
• End chronic absence during the school year (including kindergarten) 
• Ensure that striving and struggling readers make progress during the summer, instead of losing more ground 
• Address children’s health-related challenges to learning 
• Equip parents to succeed as their children’s first teachers, advocates and coaches 
• Advance, align and integrate grade-level reading and math 
• Slow learning loss and accelerate equitable learning recovery through access to the internet, relational supports, cultivating learning-rich environments and out-of-school learning opportunities 

Overall, 525 stories were reviewed by 104 peer reviewers from 24 communities in 13 states. This is tremendous and demonstrates the passion and dedication within our network to assuring more hopeful futures for children.  

The selected stories recognized as finalists are now in the technical review process conducted by an internal team of CGLR staff and consultants. This process will be completed in the first week of November, with communities named as Pacesetters on Tuesday, November 14. We invite you to check these stories out on CLIP, as they are wonderful examples of mobilization and work leading to early school success.   

Congratulations to the Florida communities named as Pacesetter Finalists!

Broward County

• “Broward Reading Explorers First Year of Summer Implementation” 

Indian River County

• “A Moonshot Community’s Commitment to Ensure Striving Readers Make Progress During Summer” 
• “Building a System to Slow Learning Loss and Accelerate Equitable Learning Recovery” 
• “Our Community Focus to Improve Kindergarten Readiness” 

Miami-Dade County

• “READy, Set, Go Miami!” 
• “The Lucy Project” 

Suncoast (Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota Counties) 

• “Digital Access for All” 
• “Grade-Level Reading” 
• “Pop Up Neighbor Through Laundry” 
• “Suncoast Remake Learning Days” 

We are so excited to see the tremendous response BookSmart is receiving all across Florida! In just the past few months, FGLRC has already recruited over 1,300 BookSmart digital library users. BookSmart, developed by Worldreader, is designed to foster a love of reading, promote literacy, and provide an enjoyable and educational experience. With BookSmart , children can explore books in English and Spanish, and access them from any device, making reading both accessible and convenient. Worldreader is constantly expanding the collection of books and they are committed to providing a diverse collection of books that caters to every child's interests and reading level.

A resource to support home reading for children and families, BookSmart is a low data-app, with the ability to download books for offline reading. The unique weekly book section comes with easy-to-use family engagement activities to set your families up for success.

BookSmart offers more than 1,000 books with the goal of supporting Pre-K through 8th-grade students to help ensure they are not left behind academically. BookSmart is the perfect resource for keeping children reading year round.

BookSmart Quick Start Instructions:

Option 1 - Access the unique Florida URL: https://booksmart.world/facct

Option 2 - Scan the unique Florida QR code.

If you would like to share BookSmart with your community, please explore the free promotional materials available on our DropBox.

You'll find downloadable posters, flyers, reading trackers, and more!

Promising Literacy Practices

Community partners are now booking FGLRC Director, Jenn Faber, to lead a training on Promising Literacy Practices for out-of-school-time programs.

• Children's Trust of Alachua - hosting on December 7

This training focuses on 21 literacy practices aligned with the Florida Standards for Quality Afterschool Programs. Contact Jenn at jfaber@facct.com for booking or questions. See our flyer below for more information on how you can bring this training to your area.