Young Readers One Book
Each year, SDHC selects the Young Readers One Book to share with children across the state. This program, which provides books to more than 10,000 students at over 200 schools throughout South Dakota, is made possible by generous donors, including First Bank and Trust and Northern Hills Federal Credit Union.
The 2022 Young Readers One Book selection is N. Griffin’s Smashie McPerter and The Mystery of Room 11, illustrated by Kate Hindley. The book follows Smashie as she dons her “Investigator Suit” and uses her thinking power to solve the mystery of the missing class hamster. Along the way, she and her best friend Dontel learn some surprising facts about their classmates.
Combining book ownership and face-to-face visits with authors and artists creates the kind of lifelong excitement for reading and writing that we want to achieve.
Download the Candlewick Press Teachers’ Guide for this book.
Young Readers Festival of Books
As an extension of our established and successful South Dakota Festival of Books and One Book South Dakota programs, SDHC launched the Young Readers Initiative in 2014 to get children excited about books and in turn prevent the common problem of reading loss during summer months.
The Young Readers Festival hosts at least a dozen children’s/YA authors and illustrators who speak directly to students in schools and at local cultural centers. Together with the Young Readers One Book, these events shape powerful learning habits for youth when they are most impressionable, setting the stage for a lifetime of joy from reading.
Young Readers Festival authors can be found on the Festival of Books page.
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South Dakota Humanities Council
1215 Trail Ridge Road, Suite A
Brookings, SD 57006
(605) 688-6113