Asia Foundation and Starbucks Bring Coffee Storybook to Let’s Read! Digital Library

The Asia Foundation and Starbucks Cambodia organized a Let’s Read! Booklab (previously referred to as e-book hackathons) on September 14 with a team consisting of a writer, an illustrator, an editor, and Starbucks partners at the Starbucks store located in Eden Garden. The book creation event is part of a broader collaboration between both organizations to make stories from Cambodia and around the world available for children to read and enjoy in their local language.

At the event, Starbucks partners narrated a fascinating tale of the origins of coffee. The creative team then worked to create an engaging children’s storybook of how coffee was discovered by a boy in Ethiopia.

“I’m very happy because I am able to showcase my ideas with other Starbucks partners.” says Phin Vireakrotha, a Starbucks partner who participated in the storybook creation event. “I think the book will be very attractive for children because it shows an interesting story of how coffee was discovered. I’m also confident in The Asia Foundation’s work because they have been very successful before in similar efforts.”

The coffee storybook will be made freely available to read and download on the Let’s Read! Digital Library and the Let’s Read! App on Google Play.

Let’s Read! draws on The Asia Foundation’s in-country capabilities, local partnerships, and technological expertise to empower communities to create, translate, and share high-quality, richly illustrated children’s books across Asia. Since 1954, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program has donated print books to thousands of under-resourced educational institutions in 21 Asian countries. While print remains an effective means of delivering information in many parts of the developing world, mobile technology’s increasing affordability suggests e-books hold the promise of becoming a cost-effective, scalable model.

Read more information about the Let’s Read! initiative.

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