Reading achievement involves skills (comprehension, fluency, vocabulary) and the practicing of those skills.  The Young Hoosier Book Award Program provides one important way to encourage independent reading.

      Prior to the 1997 Reading and Literacy Initiative for a Better Indiana, many schools did not have enough copies of the Young Hoosier Book Award books to support the program.  A survey by the Middle Grades Reading Network in 1997 found that the average middle grades school library had only 13 of the 20 titles.  

      Since 1997 the Indiana General Assembly has appropriated $14 million for new books.

Because the state funds must be matched by school corporations, a minimum of $28 million will have been spent on new school library books from 1997 to 2003.

      All middle grades schools can therefore provide the Young Hoosier Book Award books, and all Indiana students should have access to the books and the program.  Getting involved is easy.