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Students get to pick out books to keep    

If there was any doubt about what books students at Anderson Elementary prefer, there isn’t anymore.

The “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series is a big player. Followed closely by “Captain Underpants.”

The facts became apparent before the Thanksgiving break when a few students at the school were the first to try out the new book vending machine that was made possible by Whataburger and the .

“Having a book that you want to read and having subject matter that interests you makes it so much better,” said Karin Morris, the executive director of the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation. “You get to pick a book that’s just for you, what you’re interested in, and you get to learn about it and travel wherever that story takes you.”

Students at Anderson can earn Gator Bucks to use at the vending machine with good behavior, citizenship and attendance. Students also get a book on their birthday. The vending machine unveil was just part of the show for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Anderson. In addition to the unveiling of the vending machine, the students were entertained by the Rangers mascot Captain and the Whataburger mascot Whataguy, the company’s ambassador for the .

That initiative is what got the company involved with the project. set up the machine, one of 500 the company has installed in schools across the country in the last year.

The school has been working on getting the machine since July. The plan is to keep it in the main hallway to incentivize students and hopefully remind visitors they can donate new books for the machine, too.

“This is great because a lot of our students don’t have access to their own books at home,” Anderson principal Angela Peragine said. “Even the students who got the books at the assembly, some didn’t know they could keep the book. And these are popular books they want to read. Giving these students access to books like this is super important to our population.”