Scholastic Inc. kicks off Storytime in Asia campaign with a donation of 100,000 books! Photo by Anne Luntungan

One of Scholastic’s literacy champions – those people and organizations we partner with to share the message of literacy and learning – has some big news to share. And their work is going to reach millions of kids.

The Asia Foundation’s “Books for Asia” program provides brand-new books and educational materials to schools and libraries in 19 developing countries, donating about a million books per year. Now, they’ve launched Storytime in Asia, a month-long campaign that will provide critically needed reading material to some of the world’s poorest students, will serve 1700 schools and two million children in 17 countries across Asia.

And Scholastic is proud to support them.

A staggering 66% of the world’s illiterate population lives in this region, where children’s books are often unavailable or prohibitively expensive. To address this, Books for Asia has brought together four children’s book publishers under the Storytime in Asia initiative: Scholastic, Penguin Young Readers Group, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and Abrams.

Scholastic’s lead donation of 100,000 books marks our first-ever direct donation to Books for Asia and includes iconic books such as Clifford the Big Red Dog®, The Magic School Bus®, and Goosebumps®.

Want to help? You can. Find out more here. You can also find them on Facebook, where some incredible images are being posted as books are being distributed, and on Twitter at @Asia_Foundation!