COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — As fraternal twins, sisters Isabella and Elena Ramirez are quite different.
"My favorite books are probably fantasy," said Isabella Ramirez.
"The book I like to read most from school is 'Dog Man'," said Elena Ramirez.
But when it comes to picking out a book to share with our viewers, they both agreed "Doug the Pug and the Kindness Crew" has one of the best messages.
"Kindness is sharing your snacks, especially your favorites," said Elena as she reads from the book.
"I want to know if you actually share your snacks with your sister," I said.
"Sometimes," said Elena as she smiled at her sister.
"You share enough with her," I joked.
But they do share a united purpose in treating people with kindness, a message reinforced by books like this "Doug the Pug and the Kindness Crew".
"The kindness crew goes out of our way to help others, sometimes really, really far out of the way," said Elena as she continues to read out loud.
News 5's Dianne Derby: How do you guys spread kindness?
Elena Ramirez: I like to welcome people when they come to our school. I like to like be friends with them. That's kindness.
News 5's Dianne Derby: It is. That's super kind.
Isabella Ramirez: The thing that I do is if someone's feeling sad or something, I go up to them and talk to them and then make them feel better.
The two 5th graders at West Elementary in Colorado Springs have taken home about 50 books over the last few years as part of our "If You Give a Child a Book" giveaway. Principal Michael Anderson says the yearly book giveaways are, well, magical.
"There is nothing quite like a group of 20 to 30 elementary kids walking into a room that is just completely full of brand new books and not just any books, but the books that are cool for the kids and the ones that they're excited about," Anderson said. "They get to pick whatever they want and so it actually is like Disneyland."
It's a giveaway with a goal of fostering a love of reading.
"I love reading because like you can go into a new world," said Isabella.
"I like reading because there's alot you could discover, a lot of new words, and you could discover new books that you have never read before," said Elena.
Donate to the If You Give a Child a Book campaign here. A $6 dollar donation gets a book into their hands. In the 2024 -2025 donation cycle, we got to give out 15,000 free books to children in our community.
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