One School One Book back at Doby’s Bridge Elementary

Officially, it’s called One School One Book. But it’s more like one school, a whole bunch of books.

And a whole bunch of families reading together.

Doby’s Bridge Elementary School kicked off its family literacy program Monday by unveiling “The Chocolate Touch,” by Patrick Skene Catling. The book involves a boy with the Midas touch, but with chocolate rather than gold. Each family received a copy with the assignment of reading a chapter a night for nearly three weeks.

Kim Nees, library media specialist, brought the program to Sugar Creek Elementary School in 2011.

“Parents loved it, kids loved it,” Nees said.

The program is going strong there, and now at Doby’s Bridge, too. It leans on research showing the value of families spending time together through books.

“Families should be reading together each night,” Nees said. “This is shown to increase literacy in children and just help their overall academic achievement.”

Trivia and other school activities will accompany the chapters as families work through the book.

For some younger students, the benefit may be consistency in reading together daily. For the fourth- and fifth-graders, the family reading assignment could harken back to bygone times before students could so easily read on their own.

“No matter how old you are, it’s still fun to have someone read to you,” said Jeanette Black, Doby’s Bridge principal.

This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 6:23 PM with the headline "One School One Book back at Doby’s Bridge Elementary."