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First Book's Impact on Literacy

The Literacy Crisis

 

For more than 26 million children from low income families in the U.S., reading and owning new books of their very own is too rare an experience. Most recent data describes a shocking gap in access to reading materials:

  •  "While the ratio of books to children in middle-income neighborhoods is approximately 13 books per child, the ratio in low-income neighborhoods is 1 book per 300 children."

  • "More than 80 percent of the preschool and after-school programs serving children in need in the United States have no books at all to provide to their kids.

  • In North Central Idaho and Eastern Washington, the First Book-LCSC Service Area, one in five children under age 18 live in poverty.

  • In Idaho 42% of school-age children receive free and reduced lunch.

Literacy Facts


Studies show the strongest single indicator of a child's future reading ability is having access to a wide variety of reading materials in the home.  In fact, the only behavioral measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the number of books in the home.

 

 

The First Book Solution

 

First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.

First Book works with existing based tutoring, mentoring, and family literacy programs through local advisory boards. An Advisory Board consists of volunteers from all sectors of the community (nonprofit, business, and government) who join together to raise funds and grant new books to children in participating local literacy programs. Since 1992, First Book has distributed over 50 million books in over 3000 communities. First Book has partnered with children's publishing companies such as Disney Publishing Worldwide, Random House, Scholastic Inc., Harper & Collins and Simon & Schuster Children's Books. These publishers have agreed to offer significant discounts on books, including free shipping. With these discounts the average cost per book is only $2.50.

 

 

The Literacy Site


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