Book Buddies: CWRU students connect with young readers

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the summer 2025 edition of art/sci. Read more from this issue.

Cara Byrne has immersed herself in the world of children’s literature for the past decade, studying how stories shape perceptions of race, age and identity. As a lecturer in the Case Western Reserve University College of Arts and Sciences’ writing program, she explores these themes in her courses, research and a book slated to be published next year by Johns Hopkins University Press. The book analyzes children’s books that include health and wellness messaging.

But her work extends far into the community as well.

Byrne (GRS ’11, ’16, English) developed Book Buddies, a program that connects her students with second graders at Noble Elementary School in Cleveland Heights through pen-pal letters, one-on-one reading sessions and frequent visits—to Noble and the CWRU campus. Byrne’s students carefully select books covering a range of voices and perspectives and then meet with the younger students for meaningful conversations that foster a love of reading.

Byrne, also a researcher at the Schubert Center for Child Studies on campus, believes children’s literature can build bridges—inside and outside the classroom. 

Read a Q&A with Byrne about the lessons picture books can teach.