Three Amazing Charities Getting Books Into the Hands of Low-Income Kids

Poverty often has a dramatic impact on children's literacy. Recent research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 82 percent of fourth graders from low-income families were not able to reach the "proficient" level in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Being unable to read well in elementary school is often a signal of life-long struggles that lie ahead. Sociologist Donald Hernandez reports that children who are not able to read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma than their peers who are proficient in reading.

What are some of the barriers to literacy that children who are poor face? One major problem is a lack of access to books at home, and sometimes at school as well. In Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance, authors Susan Neuman and Donna Celano found that in one neighborhood of poverty in Philadelphia, there were only 358 reading resources available for about 7,000 children. A well to do neighborhood in the same city had 16,453 reading resources for only 1,200 children.

Foundations for literacy are laid in the language that infants, toddlers, and preschool aged children hear every day. Low-income families tend to engage in less conversation with their children and often use smaller vocabularies in conversation. By age three, children from affluent families have on average heard 30 million more wordsthan children from low-income families.  Neuman explains that books are essential to expanding children’s vocabulary because “even very rudimentary…board books have vocabulary that tends to be outside the parent’s normal, day-to-day interaction. So that child is learning words that he or she is likely not to see in any other place.”

Photo used via Creative Commons License. Pratham Books, https://www.flickr.com/photos/prathambooks/3291764099

Of course, families who can’t afford books aren’t able to share them with their children. That's why I am so thankful for the work of these three amazing national literacy charities that provide free and low-cost books to low-income children and the schools and organizations that serve them.

First Book: The First Book Marketplace provides schools and non-profits serving children in need the chance to buy books at 50 to 90 percent off the retail price. In a recent NPR story, First Book’s co-founder Kyle Zimmer explained that they sell the books to “virtually anybody serving children in need, from zero to 18 years of age. It can be a homeless shelter; it can be a formal classroom; it can be an abuse refuse; it can be really any place where kids are gathered.” Sometimes day care centers and schools purchase books to stock their bare bookshelves, and many other books are given to children to take home and keep.

Dolly Parton Imagination Library: This program recognizes the importance of reading to children well before school begins. Parton started the program in the mid-1990's in her East Tennessee home community, where she committed to provide a new, age-appropriate book each month to every preschool aged child. Through partnerships with local communities, more than 750,000 children from birth to age 5 now receive a free book each month in more than 1,600 local communities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The Pajama Program: The Pajama Program provides new books and new pajamas to children in need, many of whom are waiting to be adopted. Many of the children who are served by the program live in group homes or temporary shelters. There are chapters of the program in most states across the country that conduct book and pajama drives for local organizations.

Of course, each of these national organizations works with many local partners. Here in Shelby County, TN I am very grateful for the work of Shelby County Books from Birth, which raises funds for and coordinates the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program in our area. Literacy Mid-South frequently gives away books to schools and organizations working with under-served children, as well as strengthening child literacy in other ways.  

Bruce Elementary 1st graders check out their new copies of The Beeman.

Last week I was so excited to partner with Literacy Mid-South and St. John's United Methodist Church for a book drive and reading day for the children of Bruce Elementary School. We were able to provide a free Barefoot Book to every single child at the school, as well as provide volunteer readers in every classroom. 

I hope you'll consider supporting one of these amazing organizations, or another one working in your local community to get books into the hands of children who need them most!