By Khalida Sarwari
About 40 second-grade students from Oakland’s New Highland Elementary School will select a free book from Diesel Bookstore as part of a literacy program on Monday.
The “Pick-a-Book” program aspires to instill a love of reading in children who do not speak English as their first language and who come from low-income households.
The program is funded by the Children’s Book Project, which was founded to help build literacy by providing free new and gently used books to children who need them.
The grant was provided to the Screen Actors Guild BookPALS San Francisco, a program comprised of performing artists who read aloud to students in at-risk elementary schools and shelters.
Monday’s program will begin at 10 a.m. at the bookstore, located at 5433 College Ave., followed by lunch at a nearby park provided by Pasta Pomodoro.