With the end of the school year still fresh on the books, the United Way of Chester County is flipping the page to a fun new way to read this summer, and it’s starting with a public request for preschool book donations.

Thrust into gear by a CCRES grant, the summer book drive is collecting titles from Education.com’s “50 Books Your Child Should Read Before Kindergarten” now through June 29. The donations will then be used to stock the United Way’s new Little Free Libraries, the child-sized free lending boxes designed to promote reading with a “take one, leave one” approach, that were recently installed alongside its Born Learning Trails at parks and schools in Phoenixville, West Grove, West Chester, East Goshen, Coatesville, Downingtown, Parkesburg and Honey Brook. Books will also go to community libraries and summer program sites.

The Born Learning Trails are a series of signs and stencils prompting parents or other caregivers and young children through outdoor language development activities.

“Research tells us children are literally ‘born learning,’” United Way of Chester County CEO Claudia Hellebush said. “That means five years of education take place before they ever enter kindergarten. Early learning is essential to success in school, which is essential to success in life.”

Book drive collection sites include the Lionville, Jennersville, Oscar Lasko Youth Program and Brandywine branches of the YMCA of Greater Brandywine; St. James’ Episcopal Church in Downingtown; and Chester County Book Company in the West Goshen Shopping Plaza.

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