Preventing “Summer Slide” With Canadian Youth

First Book Canada, HarperCollins Canada and CompuCom partner to get eBooks into hands of young Canadians

TORONTO, Ontario (June 21, 2018) – In May, First Book Canada, HarperCollins Canada and CompuCom® partnered to provide access to quality books for youth in need. Thanks to HarperCollins Canada’s donation of $150,000 worth of high-quality books, First Book Canada has had the opportunity to, for the first time, offer four different eBook bundles. Each e-bundle contains five unique novels from celebrated children’s authors such as Kenneth Oppel, Alice Kuipers, E.B. White, and Kit Pearson. With CompuCom’s generous sponsorship, this opportunity is completely free for First Book Canada members to download and distribute the e-bundles to students they serve. This opportunity is giving students access to reading material for the summer vacation and preventing the possibility of “summer slide”: the tendency for students to lose achievement gains made during the school year.

“Whether you love fiction or nonfiction, every book lover knows how wonderful it is to escape between the pages of a book and we’re thrilled to provide that opportunity for students over the summer break,” said Craig Swinwood, CEO of HarperCollins Canada.

“CompuCom is pleased to help cultivate a love of reading in our youth so they explore a variety of topics,” noted Reem Gedeon, CompuCom’s SVP of Sales, Canada. “Reading not only sparks our children’s imaginations, but also leads them to discover their own unique interests – and equal access to this opportunity is important.”

“This is the first time we have had the opportunity to offer high-quality eBooks for free to Canadian students in low-income communities,” said Tom Best, Executive Director of First Book Canada, “Thanks to our partners at HarperCollins Canada and CompuCom, we are providing tweens and teens across Canada with access to remarkable titles they can read all summer. We truly believe that by providing equal access to quality books, we can make the playing field for Canadian youth much more level.”

About HarperCollins Canada

Known worldwide for the quality of its list, HarperCollins Canada is the proud home of many bestselling and award-winning authors, including Lawrence Hill, Emma Donoghue, Kenneth Oppel, and many more.

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd is the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 18 countries. With 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 17 languages, and has a print and digital catalogue of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals and the Man Booker Prize. HarperCollins, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) and can be visited online at corporate.HC.com.

About CompuCom

CompuCom Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Office Depot, Inc. (NASDAQ:ODP), provides end-to-end managed services, technology and consulting to enable the digital workplace for enterprise, midsize and small businesses. Celebrating its 30th year, CompuCom offers clients individualized experiences, drives workplace collaboration and productivity, and delivers operational performance and efficiency. For more information, visit www.compucom.com. CompuCom is a registered trademark of CompuCom Systems, Inc., and is used with permission.

About First Book Canada

By making new, high quality books and educational resources available on an ongoing basis, First Book Canada is transforming the lives of children and elevating the quality of education in the country. Since 2009, First Book Canada has distributed over 6 million new books to hundreds of thousands of children in need across Canada. For more information, or to register for books, visit us at firstbookcanada.org and follow our latest news on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Tom Best, Executive Director, First Book Canada
tbest@firstbook.org
866.732.3669 ext. 0130

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