Image via GEEARS.

The Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), along with Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms are preparing to kick off the organization’s 7^th Annual Mayor’s Summer Reading Club (MSRC).

The MSRC helps promote literacy skills, family engagement and vocabulary building for young children. “Every year, we announce a city-wide book choice for infants and children ages 2-5 to share with their families,” GEEARS materials read. “We work with direct service programs to distribute copies of the books at no cost to children, and we encourage schools and early education programs to introduce the story and distribute the books to children they serve.”

GEEARS works with direct service programs to distribute copies of the books free of cost to families, program materials indicate.

Throughout the summer, libraries museums, farmer’s markets and other venues will hold “book club reads” as well as enrichment activities based on the stories, according to GEEARS materials. This year’s choices for infants are Grandpa and Me and Grandma and Me by Karen Katz and In My Granny’s Garden by Pearl Cleage and Zaron Burnett Jr. with illustrations by Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey.

The kickoff event will be tomorrow, Thursday, May 30 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Alliance Theater. For more information on the MSRC, click here.