Mayor’s Summer Reading Club

The Mayor’s Summer Reading Club (MSRC) is a program for children ages birth to five and their families that takes place in various locations throughout the City of Atlanta.

Every year, we announce a city-wide book choice for infants (ages 0 to 3) and children (ages 3-5). We work with direct service programs and child-serving entities to distribute copies of the books to children and families at no cost.

Throughout the summer, libraries, museums, farmers’ markets, child care programs, and other institutions in Atlanta hold “book club reads” to model research-based methods of reading books with children and host enrichment events based on the stories. The books come to life as children enjoy arts and crafts activities, drama exercises, and other hands-on activities designed to make the language in the stories meaningful to children.

GEEARS: The Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students convenes and coordinates the MSRC, which is funded by PNC with support from the United Way of Greater Atlanta. Along with the funding, the real keys to the program’s success are the efforts of the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Speech School, the Alliance Theatre, and the dozens of partner organizations who work to sponsor individual activities, distribute books, and spread the word to parents and children.

We need child serving entities to partner with us! Partners agree to do at least one “read” during the summer and host at least one activity related to the books selected. These events are intended to be low-cost and easy for the sponsoring organizations. In addition, partners agree to send us information about their events and encourage participant engagement after book club activities. In addition, partners agree to complete a short survey after their event so that we can keep track of attendance and other information.