Credit: Abington School District.
Students in grades K–5 across Abington School District’s seven elementary schools are starting the year with exciting new additions to their school libraries. Thanks to a $5,000 Excellent and Equitable Youth Services Local Library Grant awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Office of Commonwealth Libraries, the District has added 232 new books and 21 brand-new Literacy Backpacks designed by the Teaching and Learning Department, Abington officials announced.
Abington was one of just 13 recipients statewide—and one of only two school districts—to receive this competitive grant, which supports libraries in building inclusive, developmentally appropriate collections for young learners. The funding, provided through the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, aims to help schools expand access to both fiction and nonfiction books that reflect the diverse experiences of Pennsylvania children.
For Abington, the grant builds on a districtwide initiative to make library collections more inclusive, culturally responsive, and accessible. Librarians, reading specialists, families, and community cultural partners worked together to identify gaps and curate new titles that represent the many identities, languages, and lived experiences of the District’s 8,000 students. The books were selected with care and organized by genre, cultural representation, and reading level to better support classroom instruction and student interest.
The grant also funded 21 structured Literacy Backpacks—three for each elementary school—to support early literacy in grades K–2. Each backpack focuses on one of seven key areas, such as decodable texts, social-emotional learning, financial literacy, and nonfiction. They include leveled readers, skill-building materials, and a community journal for families to reflect and engage together. Students can check out the backpacks to use at home, and schools will also integrate them into family literacy nights and other events to encourage multilingual literacy and strengthen school-home connections.
“We appreciate that Abington School District was selected by the Commonwealth to receive this grant, which is helping us provide culturally rich books in our libraries, in addition to reading materials that appeal to a wide variety of audience interests and offer a fresh approach to family engagement,” said Janine Sack, Supervisor of Literacy. “As with all of our literacy initiatives, the goal is not to simply improve reading scores, but to also help our students foster a love of reading that will carry them into their later grade levels.”
The new books and backpacks are now available for checkout at all seven elementary schools. Families interested in exploring the updated collections can visit the District’s Libraries page for more information.
