In the News: Buffalo State's Global Book Hour Featured in the Buffalo News

SUNY Buffalo State’s Global Book Hour program was profiled in a feature story by the Buffalo News’s Janet Gramza on Sunday, December 4.

The article, “Global Book Hour Helps Kids Navigate the World through Reading,” looks at what the program offers children and the future teachers who volunteer for it. The program is held for five weeks every semester at Wegmans supermarket on Amherst Street in Buffalo.

“We wanted to globalize the experience of our teacher candidates to prepare them to help children understand more effectively, ‘What does it mean to be a global citizen?’” said Pixita del Prado Hill, professor and chair of the Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership Department.

Created in 2010, Global Book Hour is the brainchild of del Prado Hill and associate professor emerita Kim Truesdell, of the Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership Department. They contacted Wegmans on Amherst Street in Buffalo to see about a partnership and have been working with the grocery chain ever since.

“One reason we chose Wegmans, besides being a fantastic community partner, is that we wanted to go where children and families are,” del Prado Hill said. “Sometimes it’s difficult for families to get to the library or access reading material, so we thought, ‘Well, everyone has to go grocery shopping,' and that Wegmans serves a diverse community on the West Side.”

Patricia George, lecturer, and Jennifer Reichnberg, assistant professor, both from the Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership Department, help oversee the program, which has grown in scope since its start 12 years ago. Global Book Hour now partners with elementary schools in Honduras and Columbia.

Photo (2011) by Buffalo State Creative Services, Marketing and Communications Office.