Studies show that 61% of American families don’t have any books at all in their homes for their children. 

Research

We have a commitment to the concept that reading is the single most important skill a child needs to learn,  yet studies show that 61% of American families don’t have any books at all in their homes for their children.  Our goal is to change this statistic by pouring books into “at-risk”homes so that children have access to books from birth, and arrive to school ready for reading.

The following research was filed by the The Report of the Commission on Reading. It was developed by the University of Illinois and published in Becoming a Nation of Readers .  Other research sources include“Reading Literacy in the United States” and the website, “BegintoRead,com”:

• Fact 1:  The most successful way to improve the reading achievement of children is to increase their access to print (Reading Literacy in the United States, 1996)
   
• Fact 2:  Having books in the home is twice as important as the father’s education level(Research in social Stratification and Mobility, 2010)
   
• Fact 3:  In middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children. (Neuman, E. T., 2006)
   
• Fact 4:  Parents should read aloud to preschool children and by discussing stories and pictures with them, establish practices and understandings that are associated with eventual  success in reading.  (Becoming a Nation of Readers)
   
• Fact 5:  Millions of children show up to the first day of kindergarten never having seen a book  before in their lives.  Through no fault of their own, they begin school four years behind.  We then spend millions per year on reading intervention programs trying to catch them up!  We want to change this by pouring quality children’s books into these homes.