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All of us at First Book have been heartbroken to learn ways recent floods in Louisiana have destroyed public libraries, school libraries, and home libraries across Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas.

An aerial view of Baton Rouge, LA after 2016 flooding. Picture by U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Even before the flood waters started to recede in Baton Rouge, we knew what residents needed most urgently: clean water, a roof overhead, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing your next meal is not a gamble. But what comes afterwards? Where do we start to rebuild the foundation of a community?

“We lost everything in our library,” said Claire Clickingbeard, a teacher at Tanglewood Elementary in Baton Rouge. “As well as all teachers’ personal collections.”

Teachers from Baton Rouge and across the country wrote and told us where they needed to start.

“Our school lost its entire library, including all the books in individual classrooms, “said Sarah Batty, a teacher at Denham Springs High School in Livingston Parish. “As I was sorting through the books, I opened a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. This particular book had been handed down through three teaching generations. I saw the ink from the handwritten notes running down the pages…and I lost what little bit of composure I still had left. It was my favorite teacher possession, and there it was dripping in the remains of the river that ran through my school.”

First Book is raising funds to help restock school libraries across the region for Claire, Sarah and many other educators and their students. Funds raised will help us cover the shipping and handling costs of donated books, as well as the purchase of additional books from the First Book Marketplace.

We invite anyone passionate about the power of books, education, and the importance of community to make a donation. If you are an individual that would like to help, please visit our fundraising page to make a donation. Each $1 donated will be MATCHED with a new book from our publishing partners, up to $30,000.

We are working with our friends at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and other publishers who have generously donated a range of new books to this effort. If you are a publisher interested in contributing books to schools and programs affected by the floods, please email First Book at [email protected].

If your school or program was affected by the recent floods and would like to request new books to restock shelves or to share with the children you serve, please enter your contact information here. Please note that completing this form will not guarantee that you will receive books, but it will be the first step in the process.  First Book will share books and resources with as many schools and programs as we are able.

Please join us in restoring the basic resources needed for a school.

The post Louisiana Book Relief: Help Restock Flooded Libraries appeared first on First Book Blog.

“This is the best day I’ve ever had!”
“This is the book I’ve always been looking for!”

These are the typical responses heard when Book Harvest comes to a school with their Books on Break program.

Book Harvest seeks to address periods of vulnerability in a child’s literacy development by ensuring books are easily accessible. Summer is one of the most challenging times to keep kids’ reading skills on track.

Once a year, Book Harvest takes over school libraries throughout Durham, North Carolina and covers every surface of the library with books. Each child is given a string backpack preloaded with information for parents about the program. It even includes an invitation for the students to come back over the summer and choose more books.

The children explore the variety of books in the library, filling their backpacks with ten books to take home and read over the summer.

Watch what happens when they pick out their books to take home for summer reading:

The post Watch What Happens: Kids Pick out Books for Summer Reading appeared first on First Book Blog.

Today’s guest blogger is Emily Townsend, an Elementary School Counselor at Lowrie Primary School in Wilsonville, Oregon.

Last year I worked daily with a fourth grade student whose father passed away right before Christmas break. He grieved mostly internally, and became increasingly distant, disengaged, and behind in school.

After feeling like I had tried almost all the tools in my toolbox, I remember setting a velvet poster in front of him – one of the Melissa & Doug Sea Life Reveal posters I purchased from First Book.

I think I was hoping for a calm moment when we could both color and just spend some no-pressure time together being mindful. Although this student had never mentioned any affinity or affection for art, as soon as he picked up the markers to begin filling in the poster he started talking about his father and his feelings for the first time ever at school.

He and I made paper airplanes, learned how to draw jungle animals using the Kids Art Series: How to Draw book I ordered from First Book, and made intricate tangles of doodles while looking at the Draw What! Doodling Book I received in the same order. And he talked. And eventually started feeling better.

The post How Arts & Crafts Created a Space to Talk and Heal appeared first on First Book Blog.

The hundreds of parents in First Five Permian Basin’s Parents as Teachers program are learning to be their child’s first teacher. They’re excited for the challenge. Topics like counting, shapes and colors are at the top of the list of concepts to teach their kids.

“Our parents may ask how to teach a certain concept like colors or counting, and we love to incorporate books into the process,” explains Beth Meyerson, Director of First Five Permian Basin.

Recently, the program received 10 Hungry Rabbits by Anita Lobel, part of the Healthy Kids Collection created by the Mario Batali Foundation, a book that reinforces the concepts of counting and colors.

But this story allowed parents to teach their children much more than these basic concepts.  In addition to the benefits of reading aloud to young child, it offered a fun way to model healthy eating and living.

The book shows a family of hungry 10 bunnies and a mother rabbit who has nothing to fill her soup pot. One by one, the bunnies go to the garden. They find vegetables and fruits of various colors and numbers to fill the pot, all accompanied by beautiful illustrations that would entice any hungry young reader. At the end of the story, the family sits down to enjoy a big, healthy pot of vegetable soup.

“Children are making neural connections when they are so young, so what they learn in the first five years of their life is going to imprint with them,” explains Beth. “Whatever message they’re hearing or seeing from their parents is going to plant inside them as a young child. So, if a child has exposure to how wonderful carrots and broccoli are, it’s going to become a part of their ongoing life.”

The Healthy Kids Collection features several books that teach basic concepts while highlighting healthy living and eating. If you work with children in need, you can access these books through the First Book Marketplace.

The post Teaching Much More Than Basic Concepts appeared first on First Book Blog.

“I want my students to get the most out of life.  A student that can read can learn about anything.  All that they aspire to be is within a book’s reach – if they can get their hands on books.”

Linette Claudio works with over 300 bilingual students at McAuliffe Elementary School.  The students in the Bilingual Transition Program are taught in their native language and slowly transition to all English instruction by the 4^th or 5^th grade.  Their access to bilingual books is limited to Linette’s classroom library.  When they leave her classroom few, if any, have books they can read and understand.

“Any books that show Latino culture are useful.  Students can see themselves within and identify with the books,”  said Linette.  “Many of the students in our school have experienced a lot of change in a short amount of time.  They have to make new friends and switch schools often.  Many deal with serious issues on a daily basis.  Having bilingual books and stories that celebrate their culture make them feel like they belong.”

Each year, Linette spends anywhere from $800 to $2000 of her own money on books and supplies  to ensure her students have the tools they need to learn.   But the books she is able to buy affordably in retail stores are not often culturally relevant or bilingual.

Recently, Linette purchased books from the First Book’s Latino Culture Collection.  The books were bilingual, culturally relevant, age appropriate and cost just $3.50 on average.  Her students can’t get enough.

“Last year one student would read every new book I would bring in.    This year, he came to me looking for help finding books in a higher level.  He is now reading transitional chapter books as a first grader.  I’m so glad I have more books to give him,”  Linette explains.

The post Feeling like They Belong appeared first on First Book Blog.

Brian Smith is on a mission: make reading fun and create lifelong readers.

An educator at Newton Conover City Schools in North Carolina, Brian called upon Jarrett J. Krosoczka, author to bring books to life.

Brian stocked each fourth grade classroom in his district with several copies of all ten books from Jarrett’s Lunch Lady series. Each student received a checklist of the titles so they could keep track as they read. The kids dove right in. The school and local libraries couldn’t keep them on the shelves.

“Over half of the fourth graders read all of the books,” said Brian. “That means in a month they each read 10 books!”

Here are Brian’s tips to keep kids turning the pages:

• Pick a series. Try to introduce kids to series. That way they get hooked and will read more and more.

The trick once they’ve completed it? Introduce them to something similar.

“If they like Lunch Lady, maybe they’ll like other graphic novels or superhero books,” he suggests.

• Create Healthy Competition. Brian created a visual arts contest and an essay contest where students wrote about how they have been superheroes by making the world a better place. Kids became familiar with the content because they were motivated to win a special prize.

The students also competed among themselves. The checklists allowed the kids to compare which books they had read, racing to read them all.

• Use books that are accessible to more kids. Because Brian picked graphic novels, students who read below grade level could participate equally. Reluctant readers were excited by the funny content and illustrations.

“The teachers really noticed, even the reluctant readers couldn’t put the books down.” says Brian. “They’d say, ‘He never reads anything and he only has one more book to finish!’”

• Get fellow educators involved and excited. “The classrooms where the teachers were most enthusiastic were the ones where the kids were most engaged,” reports Brian.

Having books accessible in every classroom, using fun bookmarks in the shape of pizza slices and having educators at the school read the books created an environment around books that made the students want to read.

The post How To Make Reading Fun and Create Lifelong Readers appeared first on First Book Blog.