Penguin Random House | Toronto, 07/31/2020

PRH Canada Launches Summer Reading Challenge to Connect Young Readers with Black Authors

In the “Raptors 905 Summer Reading Challenge” jointly initiated by Penguin Random House Canada, the First Book Canada organization, the Raptors 905 basketball team, and Tangerine Bank, more than 200 students are invited to read five books in five weeks – all of the titles are by Black authors.

Penguin Random House Canada has launched the “Raptors 905 Summer Reading Challenge” to get children from Ontario reading and talking about books about Black characters, by Black authors this summer. In cooperation with First Book Canada, the Mississauga City Raptors 905 basketball team, and Tangerine Bank, the publishing group is inviting 200 fifth-grade students from the province of Ontario to read five books in five weeks, for a total of 905 minutes of reading time. The books selected for the campaign were all written by Black authors and tell the stories of Black characters. At the end of each week, the children can discuss the stories and their themes in a video conference with the authors of the books and other community leaders, including from Brampton’s Festival of Literary Diversity. Raptors 905 coach Jama Mahlalela will lead the discussions.

The five books selected for the program are “Dragons in a Bag” by Zetta Elliott, “Clean Getaway” by Nic Stone, “What Lane?” by Torrey Maldonado, “No Small Potatoes” by Tonya Bolden, and “Locomotion” by Jacqueline Woodson. As schools in Canada have been closed since March due to the Corona pandemic, and libraries have only recently reopened under strict conditions, many children who have no access to books at home have had few opportunities to read in recent months. The Raptors 905 Summer Reading Challenge seeks to empower these children in particular to read, while also encouraging interaction with the authors and with people from their communities. Penguin Random House Canada also wants to ensure that young readers of different ethnic backgrounds can identify with the characters and stories they read.