Brockton Avenue Pre-K Class: Winner of the Million Word Challenge

Two weeks ago I did an author visit at Brockton Avenue Elementary with 43 enthusiastic children in Ms. Cotten and Ms. Nieman's Pre-K class, winner of the school's Million Word Challenge. Outside of school, these students had read more than 1600 pages with their parents and with volunteers from the community.   The Million Word Challenge is a county-wide campaign that encourages students to spend time reading outside of the classroom. A winner was chosen from each school to receive a gift card from Target to purchase books. As an incentive for more participation, the classroom also received visit from a children's author. That was me!  I read several of my books and had the children participate in a "lion hunt" after I read my book A Zebra's World.
My visit was arranged through Read to a Child Los Angeles, a non-profit that pairs corporate volunteers with elementary school students from Title I elementary schools. It currently serves 171 students with 236 volunteers across 7 schools in LA County.