Behind a mound of brightly illustrated children’s books piled high on a table at Dickinson Hall, Michelle Owen, a graduate of UALR and now a librarian at Hill Farm Elementary in Bryant, peers into her computer screen.

She is trying to determine precisely where one of the smaller stacks should be relocated in another section of the room. Empty book publisher’s boxes are littered throughout the space and busy workers print out proper labels so that the books may be appropriately re-routed to their final destinations—several schools across the central Arkansas area.

“That one goes with the Bs,” Owen says, referencing a category on her spreadsheet that designates a title as intended for first graders.

Owen is among several alumni and current students who, along with faculty member Dr. Sheri Tucker, are coordinating the delivery of more than 7,000 books to the K-8 schools this semester.

The team was busy with the delivery of books to area schools on a recent Saturday morning in an effort that is part of the 2015 Children’s Choice program, which began as an annual joint project of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the Children’s Book Council (CBC) in 1974.

Each year, approximately 10,000 school-age children from different regions of the U.S. read and choose 100 favorites from books donated by U.S. children’s book publishers.

Tucker, an assistant professor in the College of Education and Health Professions at UALR, is behind the effort to bring Children’s Choice to Arkansas after being chosen to serve as the state’s IRA team leader.

UALR is among only a five sites across the U.S. selected to receive publisher’s books for distribution. Tucker said Arkansas was selected based on demonstrated interest and need and because of the geographically and culturally diverse area served.

“It really is quite an honor and just good all the way around for children whose reading skills will be enhanced as a result of having access to so many free, quality books written by excellent authors,” she said.

To tackle a project of this size, Tucker invited Owen to co-chair and help lead a group of current and former students to distribute the books throughout the semester.

Tucker and her team are delivering books to six schools and about 2,500 children in kindergarten through sixth grade who will be reading from September to January and then voting on their favorites.

At the end of the voting, the top book winners are published by IRA as Children’s Choice Winners and, from that group, children vote again for the final coveted Children’s Choice Book Award.

Participating schools keep all of the books, often valued at more than $12,000 per school.

Schools participating this year are Wilson Elementary, Hills Farm Elementary, Collegeville Elementary, Jacksonville Elementary, Bryant Middle School, and Dunbar Magnet Middle School.

The typical librarian has only a $200 to $500 budget for books, said Tucker, so schools rely on these type of projects to expand their supply of quality literature.

The program’s access to more books gives more choices, which encourages better readers and makes a huge impact on literacy levels overall.

Many of the team delivering books this semester are former graduate students of the education program at UALR. In addition to co-chair Owen, other alumni include Stephanie Snead, Melanie Leflar, and Emma Penticoff. Current students Joshua Penticoff and Tracy Caul are also helping the cause.

“For me, these kind of projects help me stay involved with my students. When they graduate and go out to serve these young learners, I still want to be available to help them shine as teachers,” said Tucker.