Education | Illinois Public Media

Illinois Public Media’s book mentor project gets kids excited about reading and puts books into the hands of families who otherwise might not have access to books at home. Volunteers from campus and community service organizations visit Head Start and early childhood classrooms once a month to read a book and do a related activity with the children. At the end of the day, each child gets to take home a copy of the book. By the time the school year ends, each child has added six familiar books to his or her home library.

For more information about Illinois Public Media’s book mentor project visit the project website.

A Place of Our Own is a daily television series, a Web site, and an extensive outreach program devoted to the needs of people who care for children -- family, friends and neighbors. The TV series airs weekdays at 12:30 pm on WILL-TV. Try it! And check out the message boards, activity instructions, resources and downloads on the Web site, too!

PBS KIDS Raising Readers is a national literacy campaign that uses an innovative blend of media to surround children ages 2 to 8 with research-based literacy content. It includes TV, online and mobile media resources, as well as community engagement activities designed to build reading skills at home, at school and in the community. As part of this initiative, Illinois Public Media recently placed Raising Readers Library Corners in libraries in Champaign and Decatur. These library corners provide a unique space for kids to play reading games with their favorite PBSKIDS characters while highlighting and promoting library resources.

To learn more about PBS KIDS Raising Readers research and resources visit http://pbskids.org/read/about/