From baseball cards to Pokémon, kids have long been fascinated by trading cards.

Now card collecting is getting students to read more books at a Bowling Green school.

As our Laura Rogers explains, those cards have some familiar faces.

Hannah Ogden is library media specialist at W.R.

McNeal elementary.

There is a line out the door some days for kids who were checking out books.

The library is among the most popular places in school.

Our circulation has definitely gone up.

I ran the numbers just a few weeks ago and there is a measurable difference for Amelia Bedelia.

That increased enthusiasm for reading is thanks in part to collectible trading cards for the books, students read.

Oh yeah, we all read those.

We know that reading incentives don't work unless it's part of a bigger culture of reading within the school and the trading cards have have been really instrumental in creating that sort of culture.

In fact, it's not just teachers, but custodians and cafeteria workers who have their own trading cards.

And this chair, they still miss Hetty.

Even the principal, Miss Emily Mills, has a card to collect.

That's one of my favorite things, is to walk down the hall.

And I seen it.

Go.

Miss Mills, at your Carter.

Miss Mills, I'm going to get your card next Tuesday.

Or Miss Mills, I'm going to read this book to get your card to get their principals card.

Students read.

Her favorite children's book, author Mo Willans, 24, which also encourages conversations around literacy.

So I'll tell them my favorite kid's author is Mo Willems.

And they love that.

And they're like, oh, I've read The Piggy an elephant, but I've read the Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the bus.

Mills says she's seeing growth in students self-confidence with reading.

It has taken it to another level for all of our students, and it really does include all of the students and kindergarten through fifth grade.

Not a lot these days will excite a five year old and an 11 year old at the same time, but this does.

It's also accessible to every student that's willing to read more books.

Do you have Mr.

King's biography card?

Not every student has Pokemon cards or not.

Every student has the ability to get them.

But with these reading trading cards, they do.

And Ogden was inspired by a friend's experience at a tech conference in Boston, where she learned of a school librarian doing something similar.

We sort of took that and we ran with it.

As far as I know, we were the first school to transfer that over to staff trading cards.

A bonus has been students connecting with more teachers and staffers they otherwise wouldn't get to know.

Like our speech teacher, for example, not all of our students know her unless they go to her for a speech.

But now she is the if you give a mouse a cookie card.

And so she's got students running up to her telling her that they earned her card.

There are at least 65 cards for students to collect, and they're always changing to kind of keep it fresh.

We don't want it to get stagnant.

They hope to encourage kids to read across several genres and authors and to learn more library skills.

Some reading promotions.

I feel like I'm only reaching students who already loved reading, but this one, it has had such a broad impact.

It's just been a tremendous success.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Laura Rogers.