Humphries Elementary School debuts new book vending machine

Reading just became a lot more fun at Humphries Elementary School.

Everybody Wins! Atlanta and Amazon partnered with the school to unveil a new book vending machine near the entrance of the school.

“The students do seem excited about getting a book,” Humphries Elementary School library media specialist Oreta Campbell said. “We’re going to be using it big time next year. But we did give five of our fifth graders a chance to try out the machine, and then we ended up with some second graders who wanted to try the machine out.”

Students will be able to earn coins for being good readers, having good attendance, and for other accomplishments acknowledged by their teachers. The machine is brightly colored, has flashing lights inside, and announces the purchase of a book before dropping the selection for the students to collect.

“What we do here is try to get kids to read,” Humphries Elementary School principal Jaron Trimble said. ” To have this in our foyer, in our common space, is going to be a huge piece in encouraging them to read.”

After unveiling the new book vending machine, Everybody Wins! Atlanta and Amazon weren’t done encouraging students to read. In the school’s library, they hosted a book fair and volunteers made sure every student at Humphries Elementary School received a free book to add to their personal collection.

“We are so grateful to the organizations that donated the books,” Campbell said. “We really need to support our students reading because reading is a skill that lasts an entire lifetime.”