At Scholastic, we believe that a great book stays with you… no matter where it goes. Sometimes you read a book so moving or so funny that you just have to pass it on to another reader. That’s why we’ve created Pass It On, an activity that encourages people to give a book a new home.

Sharing a book can be fun to do anytime, between friends, at family gatherings, at birthday parties and of course, together as a class! Pass It On is the perfect holiday classroom activity, teaching kids about giving and sharing. And do I need to convince you that it’s another great way to get kids talking about books and to experience the fun of spreading the word about a good book? Your class can participate in Pass It On in five easy steps:

Step 1: Choose the book – Encourage your students to pick a book (new or gently used) they want to pass on.

Step 2: Print out the Pass It On bookplate – Print bookplates and have students cut out as many as you need for the class.

Step 3: Fill out the bookplate – Have your students fill in their name and why they chose a particular book. You may also want to give additional writing prompts by asking students if the book is one of their favorite reads? How did the book make them feel? Did the book evoke special memories? Why would someone else enjoy the book? Encourage them to keep spoilers out or to a minimum!

Step 4: Affix the bookplate to the book – Tuck, tape or paste the completed bookplate inside the front cover of the book.

Step 5: Pass on the book – This is the fun part! Students can give their books to a friend, family member, or a charity. As a class activity, create a book swap with students passing on books to each other or another class. Students can talk about what they wrote and why they think their classmate would enjoy the book. You can also have students wrap their books at home in newspaper or plain paper and do a secret-Pass It On!

If you’d like your class to take Pass It On a step further, your students can go to the url on the bottom of the bookplate and tell visitors to Scholastic’s new online community You Are What You Read where they received the book.

YouArewhatYouRead.com is a community for book lovers to connect with each other through the books that have changed our lives. There’s a special version of the site just for young readers (under 13), featuring kid-friendly Names You Know like Taylor Swift, Rick Riordan, R.L. Stine, Daniel Radcliffe, Tony Hawk and Whoopi Goldberg along with the books that most influenced them. To learn more about You Are What You Read and to see how you can use this site with your students all year long, take a look at our teacher’s guide. Watch You Are What You Read in action here: