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First-grader Bella Tirado poses with other children and with Ginny Carmody of the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County, Syracuse Superintendent Sharon Contreras and Clifford the Big Red Dog at this morning's book giveaway at Salem Hyde Elementary School.

(Paul Riede | priede@syracuse.com)

The Syracuse school district will give a backpack filled with 10 books to every child from kindergarten through fifth grade so they can keep up with their reading over the summer.

That means the district will hand out 92,910 books.

The school district said Scholastic donated more than $100,000 in books and backpacks to the district. The district spent $276,804 out of its general fund.

Study suggests the books will help many children improve their reading

Scholastic Upstate account executive Bob Webber said Scholastic runs the program in many school districts across the country, but this is the first time the Syracuse district has participated.

The district kicked off the program this morning at Salem Hyde Elementary School. Mayor Stephanie Miner spoke to first-graders at the school, urging them to read throughout the summer.

"There are two types of people in the world," she said. "There are people who like to read and people who haven't found the right book yet. ... If you read and when you read, your whole world will become better by it."

Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras told the students the books were intended to stop "summer learning slide." The district cited research showing that as much as 85 percent of the achievement gap between students from low-income and high-income families can be attributed to the loss of reading skills during the summer.

"We want to make sure students stay on track to be successful," the superintendent said.

The program culminated as a "special guest" -- Clifford the Big Red Dog -- helped hand out backpacks to the first-graders.

The book giveaway starts where the Imagination Library leaves off. Under that program, run by the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County, a book is sent to children every month from birth to age 5. The coalition hopes to expand that program this summer so that every child in the city can participate.

Contact Paul Riede at priede@syracuse.com or 470-3260. Follow him on Twitter at @PaulRiede.