YONKERS - A nonprofit delivered 9,000 donated books to 292 of the city's public school classrooms yesterday as part of a children's literacy program.

Children in the Yonkers public schools' kindergarten through third-grade classes were given a package with a book and other materials for parents about the importance of reading with a child.

YonkersReads! is the latest Yonkers Partners in Education initiative in the public schools. The charity also funds SAT preparation courses that have raised some students' scores by hundreds of points.

The group's executive director, Wendy Nadel, said at a news conference that YonkersReads! is essential to improving literacy among the public schools' low-income students, who represent a majority of the district's population.

"In middle-income families there are 13 books for every child. In low-income families there is one book for every 300 children. You can see the disparity," said Nadel, citing national statistics on children's access to books.

The charity aims to raise money to buy 100,000 books for Yonkers schoolchildren. The books cost $4 to $8. The public can donate by logging on to www.ypie.org.

Parent Yahaira Solognier has a third-grade son at School 21 and praised the literacy campaign.

"Kids need to read because TV is not good for them," Solognier said.

Reach Ernie Garcia at 914-696-8290 or elgarcia@lohud.com.

______________________________________

Yonkers Reads!, a program sponsored by Yonkers Partners in Education, offers us an opportunity to directly and positively affect another person's life by donating a book(s) to this program. With 73% of families in the school district living at or below the poverty line, many homes do not have access to a constant flow of books. Research shows that:

1.  In middle income neighborhoods, the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children.

2.  Children from low-income families have been exposed to an average of only 25 hours of one-on-one reading time compared to an average of 1,000 to 1,700 hours for children from middle-class families.

Not only can this program help Yonkers children but all of us who make our homes here.  The better our schools and students are, the better our city and our neighborhoods are.  Most of these books are only $6 or $7 each and shipping is free over $25; the more you buy, the better you feel!

You can help inspire a reader—purchase a book online today.

Barnes & Noble.com will donate 5% of all sales from this special YPIE website to Yonkers Partners in Education so that more books can be purchased for the campaign.