The lobby of the college building echoes with the noise of teenagers milling around a table filled with books. Hands flutter over the bright covers, picking them up, flipping them over, thumbing through pages. Welcome to an Elon Academy Saturday at break time, the mid-point pause in this monthly gathering of the more than 70 student participants in a college access and success program in Alamance County, North Carolina. Break time means socialization and snacks, but also a chance to grab the book one is planning to read for next month's Book Jam. The jam encourages these students from low-income homes and underresourced schools to make reading an ongoing part of their lives. Reflecting current research on adolescent literacy and multifaceted definitions of college readiness, this project enhances the efforts of local public schools to make students college ready. This article concludes that college readiness hinges upon facility and confidence with texts of all kinds. By creating additional spaces for reading, college-access programs can help first-generation, low-income students develop the reading habits necessary for their college hopes and dreams.