MADISON, Wis. — The Dream Bus is a library on wheels that goes to different communities around Dane County hoping to encourage more kids to pick up a book and start reading.
Tracy Herold is the Dane County library service director.
She said she and her team read stories every week to kids at community centers throughout Dane County.
“The idea is to bring library service to neighborhoods that find it more difficult to get to library locations,” Herold said.
Herold said she hopes the dream bus can inspire more kids to pick up a book and start reading.
She has seen it happen firsthand.
“Kids who may have come on board initially just because they were curious, but they told us, 'I don’t really like reading,'” said Herold. “By about the third or fourth stop, they are checking something out."
According to 2022 data from the nation's report card, only 33% of fourth grade students in Wisconsin performed at or above the proficient reading level.
This percentage was not much different from data collected in 2019, which showed 36% of fourth graders in Wisconsin performed at or above the proficient reading level.
Herold said she hopes to help change that statistic and get more books in the hands of Dane County's young people.
“We have books for babies, teen fiction, juvenile fiction, adult materials,” said Herold. “We work with all Dane County libraries, so if you check out anything at a Dane County library, you can return it here.”
For a look at the Dream Bus schedule, click here.