The latest New Yorker of the Week is creating a new chapter in the education of city students by giving kids a good book when they update their look. NY1's John Schiumo filed the following report.

Books get a lot of buzz at a Harlem barbershop. Students get new looks and become well-read.

It's all thanks, in part, to Alvin Irby. In 2013, the former school teacher founded Barbershop Books. The nonprofit promotes literacy by creating kid-friendly reading spaces in barbershops in low-income neighborhoods.

"We have a case where they're not seeing relevant reading models at school or at home or in the community," Irby says. "Barbershops are one of the only places left in many black communities where you find men and families from different socioeconomic levels who interact."

By adding carefully curated books to these key places, kids realize reading doesn't have to be homework. It can also be fun.

"He lit right up," says Nina Justiniano, the grandmother of a patron at the barbershop. "Once he sees a book that he enjoys and he likes, he gravitates to that book."

"Reading is very important to me," says student Kyyle Smith. "A lot of my family tell me I have to read because it builds my intelligence."

Barbershop Books is located inside dozens of shops in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Alvin hopes to expand to more boroughs by the end of the year.

"Alvin has worked tirelessly to bring this program from a vision into a real-life situation where kids are coming in reading," says volunteer Da'Quallon Smith.

"The kids come here every week, you know what I'm saying, every week, every two weeks, and they look forward to it," says Dennis Mitchell, the owner of Denny Moe's Superstar Barbershop. "Some of them just run straight to the books.”

The program has already touched the lives of hundreds of students, proving education doesn't only happen in a classroom.

"I want little boys to walk out of here saying, 'You know what? I had a real positive experience with the barbers, with the books, and I want to do it again. Matter of fact, when I get home, I want to read some more,'" Irby says.

So, for encouraging students to keep their nose in a book, one haircut at a time, Alvin Irby is our New Yorker of the Week.

For more information about the program, visit barbershopbooks.org.