{"id":138111,"date":"2026-03-14T08:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/138111\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T08:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:34:22","slug":"jalen-hurts-new-book-leads-to-the-surprise-of-a-lifetime-for-philadelphia-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/138111\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Hurts\u2019 new book leads to the surprise of a lifetime for Philadelphia students"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jalen Hurts Foundation joined forces with Barbershop Books, an organization that looks to “inspire Black boys and other vulnerable children to read for fun through child-centered, culturally responsive, and community-based programming and content,” according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alvin Irby, the founder and executive director, has assisted in putting stocked bookshelves in 30 Philadelphia barbershops, reaching more than 3,500 boys a month. The organization helps kids identify as readers while also providing literacy training to barbers to help them engage with the children.<\/p>\n

Each bookshelf is curated to have books that interest young boys, and now the display at Hair Connections has copies of Better Than a Touchdown.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s a great influence to have, especially in the inner city and in these communities,” Hurts said of Barbershop Books. “I’m very thankful to be a part of that, and it’s beautiful to see. That’s something that I didn’t have when I was coming up, and I think it’s very positive, and I think it’s a great influence, so I love that. I love that for the city.”<\/p>\n

“Black male reading role models, it’s not every day that professional athletes get asked about reading or about their reading journey or the importance of reading in their lives,” Irby added. “So when someone like a Jalen Hurts partners with us to promote reading, it’s a big deal, and not just for us, but for the children who’ll see that reading role model.”<\/p>\n

Each student was gifted a copy of Hurts’ book, and they all got an opportunity to take pictures and chat with the quarterback in what was an experience they won’t soon forget.<\/p>\n

“That is amazing because for him to come out to our community and spend time with our kiddos means a lot and shows them that he cares, and he’s not just a public figure on TV that you never see,” said Stephanie White, the principal of KIPP Philadelphia Elementary Academy. “For him to share his story about encouragement and motivation, they clearly were like, ‘Oh my gosh, a challenge, we can do that too!’ So knowing that he had challenges earlier in life and look where he’s gotten is really important to show our kiddos that they can achieve anything that they want to as well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jalen Hurts Foundation joined forces with Barbershop Books, an organization that looks to “inspire Black boys and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1792,524,6108,2196,69,71,70,2197],"class_list":["post-138111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-all-news-archived","tag-community","tag-jalen-hurts","tag-nfl-com-feature","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-team-roster-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}