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Students at Callaway Elementary school now have a new, creative way to boost their love for reading.

On Tuesday, Callaway Elementary School introduced a book vending machine as part for its students. The school’s principal, Dr. Milton Reese and students celebrated the introduction of the vending machine with a ribbon-cutting that morning.

“At the beginning of this school year, we were looking for different ways to increase literacy among our students as we know that not all students have a love for reading,” Reese said in a press release. “However, we wanted to be able to place books in all the student’s hands, so we aligned literacy with our Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) program.”

Reese said the school is trying to make sure students know what their expectations are when they’re in the classroom, bus or in the cafeteria. Having access to the book vending machine will allow students to be rewarded for the things they do well. This additionally allows the school to reach the behaviors that are expected through PBIS and Literacy.

Irisha Goodman, director of public relations for the Troup County School System, said some of the other area schools have looked into ordering book vending machines for their schools and may have them in the near future.

“It’s exciting to place a book in the students’ hands and encourage and foster a love for reading. When the machine arrived the students got really excited about being able to shop the machine and have their own book to take home,” Reese said.

The vending machine and the 500 stocked books are part of the Literacy for Learning, Living, and Leading in Georgia grant. It’s expected that the machine will need to be refilled quarterly during the school year as students earn their golden coins to use to purchase the books,  according to the press release.