From staff reports:

On Tuesday, a dozen teachers from Rainier View Elementary School along with a handful of parent volunteers handed out free books in the Federal Way community.

Hundreds of books were distributed at Crosspointe Apartments, Pinewood Village Apartments and Rainier View to more than 20 families at each site. Volunteers also handed out free root beer floats.

The books come from The Reading Tree, a non-profit organization that has donated more than 3,000 books to Rainier View.

The school will continue to hand out books to children and parents throughout the school year, said Principal Kent Cross.

“We want our kids to have a love for literacy, and they can’t have a love for literacy if they don’t have books,” he said. “We will keep giving more books away for kids and parents to take and enlarge their home library… This feeds right into what this school’s all about — a community-focused school.”

To learn more about the Reading Tree program and make a donation, visit www.readingtree.org.