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Virginia Programs Promote Reading

Americans are familiar with using a vending machine to get a drink, a snack, even live bait. But in Southwest Virginia, one school district is using such machines to deliver food for thought: books.

Henry County Public Schools recently unveiled vending machines that will be available in all nine of its elementary schools and will be stocked with books that students can keep. Students earn tokens by being well-behaved and can exchange them for reading material.

“This is one step that we can take to make reading more fun, to make reading more accessible, and to just instill that lifelong love of reading and learning,” Henry County Superintendent Amy Blake-Lewis told WDBJ. The district’s students will be able to use the vending machines when they return to classes this week.

Statewide, Virginians can participate in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The program promises to provide a free book every month from birth until age 5, when a child starts kindergarten.

A 2024 state law established a statewide program, but it has taken some time to get it up and running.

“Any time you do anything that involves government, it is not the fastest moving thing,” then-Republican Del.........

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