Book vending machines to quench the thirst for reading

JetBlue Airways’ award-winning Soar with Reading programme is taking off for the fifth consecutive summer, placing age appropriate books into the hands of children in need. Encouraging imaginations to take flight through reading, this year’s initiative includes an online #BookBattle which encourages the public to join in the fun at www.SoarwithReading.com and pick which community should receive 1,00,000 new children’s books.

In honour of the fifth anniversary of the Soar with Reading summer reading initiative JetBlue has selected five cities to battle for these books – Detroit, Houston, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, and New York City. The city with the most online votes will win. Online voting is open through August 31, 2015 and books will be donated in 2016.

To quench one of the biggest book deserts, JetBlue has also launched a pilot programme as an extension of this year’s Soar with Reading initiative. In an effort to make an immediate impact, JetBlue revealed book vending machines in Washington, DC to provide children in the Southeast neighbourhood with free access to books. Washington, DC was chosen to launch this programme after a study commissioned by JetBlue found that the Anacostia section of DC is a large book desert, leaving residents little or no access to purchase age-appropriate children’s books.

JetBlue is New York’s Hometown Airline, and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan while Random House Children’s Books is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher