What a Treasure!, a picture book by Jane and Will Hillenbrand for children ages 3 to 6, is Pennsylvania's One Book, Every Young Child 2010 selection. This year's program officially kicks off on April 13, 2010. Since the book was published in 2006, children have been accompanying Mole on his dig as he discovers exciting treasures for both his animal friends and for himself.

This is the fifth year of this important program to highlight the importance of early literacy development in preschoolers. In its inaugural year, the One Book, Every Young Child program won the coveted, national John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award.
The collaborating agencies all support early childhood literacy efforts and emphasizing the importance of reading early and often to children, as well as engaging them in conversation and other activities around books. They are working together to develop a multi-faceted program accessible to all areas and populations of the state.

Throughout the year, there will be local events including author visits; library and museum programming for families; and activities for parents, early care providers and educators. You can find a list of these activites on the events page. There also will be traveling trunks developed by museum educators to help expand upon the concepts in What a Treasure! Each trunk is filled with fun book-related puppets, games and manipulatives for young children, as well as a guide for librarians and educators that encourages use of the trunk contents in activities that are aligned with the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards.

One Book, Every Young Child is made possible through a collaboration of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Please Touch Museum, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Library Association, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, The Pennsylvania Child Care Association, PennSERVE, HSLC/Access PA and Verizon. This program was supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by Pennsylvania's Office of Commonwealth Libraries.

Previous selections for the Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child program are:

2009 Book Selection: If You Were a Penguin by Wendell and Florence Minor
2008 Book Selection: Up, Down, and Around by author Katherine Ayres and illustrator Nadine Bernard Westcott
2007 Book Selection: A Splendid Friend, Indeed by author and illustrator Suzanne Bloom
2006 Book Selection: Inside Mouse, Outside Mouse by author and illustrator Lindsay Barrett George

See the websites for these programs. Visit the archive page.