Free Book Friday is Mr. Arno’s attempt to provide his students with 1000 FREE STEM RELATED BOOKS during the 2019 – 2020 school year to build up their personal libraries at home.

Whether students are selecting books for themselves or to read along with a younger family member, research has shown that students who are challenged in reading often do not have more than 10 books in their personal library at home.

Categories of STEM related books range from animals, machinery, weather, famous inventors, and space exploration. Most of these books are brand new and surplus books from national publishers and/or Scholastic book fairs.

The days leading up to FREE BOOK FRIDAY, Mr. Arno provides the class with a book talk about some of the books that will be available. From sink holes to military drones, each book talk is often accompanied with a brief video to pique students interest.

FREE BOOK FRIDAY is the brainchild of Larry Abrahams, a New Jersey High School English teacher who founded BookSmiles. Since being started in 2017, BookSmiles has donated over 165,000 books to students in the NJ and PA area.