A school in Reston has been chosen to host the centerpiece event of this year’s nationwide Read Across America campaign.
Local author Kwame Alexander will visit Langston Hughes Middle School at 2:30 p.m. this Sunday (March 2) to celebrate Read Across America Day as well as the 10th anniversary of his 2015 Newbery Medal win for the bestselling novel “The Crossover.”
Alexander will be joined by jazz bassist Amy Shook for a unique performance based on his novel, which tells the story of a 12-year-old basketball player and his family in verse.
“Langston Hughes students will feel the rhythm and the beat of twin brothers navigating love, loyalty, and family on and off the basketball court in a whole new way,” the National Education Association (NEA), which organizes Read Across America, said in a press release. “Students will share their artistic, dramatic, musical, and athletic talents in an unforgettable afternoon with invited students, families, educators, and esteemed guests.”
The NEA, a professional organization that represents more than 3 million educators, launched Read Across America in 1998 to encourage literacy among children. The program is now the biggest reading celebration in the country, with an estimated 45 million people participating in events throughout the year.
Read Across America has partnered with Alexander for its 2025 campaign to “highlight the dynamic connection between story and sound,” the NEA said in the Feb. 20 release.
“By blending two of the most expressive art forms — literature and music — young readers gain new perspectives, inspire positive change, and experience the joy of community,” the release says. “Through books, they not only discover their own voices but also learn to appreciate the rhythm of others’ stories and lived experiences — one book, one story, and one song at a time.”
In addition to visiting Langston Hughes (11401 Ridge Heights Road), this year’s signature event, Alexander will read “The Crossover” with Shook providing musical accompaniment for a series of videos that will be posted on NEA’s website, Facebook page and YouTube channel at 8 a.m. every day from March 3-7.
The NEA also created resources that teachers can use in the classroom to talk about the book.
A New York City native who now lives in Reston, Alexander has written 40 books and served as a showrunner, writer and producer on a TV adaptation of “The Crossover,” which won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Young Teen Series last year.
His most recently published works were the picture book “How to Sing a Song” and “Black Star,” which was the second book in a trilogy and followed a Black girl in the segregated South who hopes to become the first female professional baseball pitcher.
Alexander has regularly spoken out against recent book bans that have primarily targeted books about people of color and LGBTQ people. He said he was “thrilled” to work with the NEA for this year’s Read Across America based on their shared belief in the transformative power of books.
“Offering up new and different experiences is the magic reading brings us,” Alexander said in the press release. “Through the nation’s largest celebration of books and reading, we can spread that magic simply by picking up a book and sharing it with a child. When we read together, we inspire a love for reading that lasts a lifetime.”
