The auditorium packed with Bessemer City third graders buzzed as little hands shot into the air, excited to ask 15-year-old best-selling author, Nia Mya Reese, about how she started reading and writing.

In 2019, lawmakers approved the Alabama Literacy Act requiring third graders to meet reading benchmarks before moving to the fourth grade. On Friday, nearly 300 Bessemer City Schools’ third graders participated in an assembly featuring Reese in a new partnership with Amazon introducing young scholars to literacy and careers.

Amazon provided $25,000 to fund the implementation of literacy centers in every Bessemer City elementary school.

“I think there is such a great need for tools like the literacy lab. I think that it’s a great initiative,” the young author’s mother, Cherinita Reese, said.

“I think it is very important for kids to see someone that looks like them. Her story inspires so many because she started when she was just a little younger than them. Teachers tell me that kids who struggled with reading and writing are inspired after learning that Nia Mya was just like them. They get that learning light.”

Bessemer school improvement specialists said the literacy centers at the district’s five elementary schools and New Horizon Alternative School will provide students with engaging instructional materials, desktop computers and fun tools to support the love of reading and writing in a safe, comfortable environment.

In 2016, Reese, now a Hoover High School student, wrote and published her first book, “How To Deal With And Care For Your Annoying Little Brother,” at only eight years old.

Soon after, she wrote and published “Bully At School: A Bully’s Perspective” and “The Sore Loser: (Don’t Be One!).”

“I love reading. It was supportive. We supported her. She has some good books that we read. I read the bullying book in second grade, and I liked the book.” Charles F. Hard Elementary School student Amar Umrani, 9, said.

Reese said she loved the younger students’ enthusiasm for reading and writing.

“It’s important to show other, smaller children living proof that their dreams can indeed happen,” Reese said. “I feel like especially now, since there’s so much suffocation of childhood dreams and wonder, it’s very important to show them that there is still a chance to do great things in the world.”