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Classrooms packed, desks emptied, another school year is coming to a close. Summertime is on the horizon and for kids, that means three precious months of sweet, sticky freedom.

But when kids from low-income families leave school for the summer, the outlook isn’t always so sunny.  While their more affluent peers may be visiting libraries, attending summer camp and reading their favorite stories every night, kids in need often spend the summer months without access to books and learning opportunities.

Over the years, those months add up – by the end of 5^th grade, kids from low-income families are nearly three grades behind their peers in reading skills.

But there’s good news! Books beat summer slide.

Studies show that kids’ reading skills improve when they have access to books over the summer – and this is especially true for kids in need. In fact, children who are given access to books over the course of three summers perform 35-40% better on reading achievement tests than those without.

Together we can fight summer slide by getting books into the hands of kids in need.

If you work with children in need, you can access books, games, activities and other resources to keep kids learning all summer long. Sign up with First Book today!

The post Books Beat Summer Slide appeared first on First Book Blog.

I like to joke that I could be a “poster child” for a SCBWI success story . . .

In January of 2012, I attended my first SCBWI International Conference in New York. I wasn’t sure I was ready, but a fellow illustrator friend said, “I’ll go if you go.” So off we went, flying across the country— portfolios in hand. I kept my expectations low, hoping for a little exposure and, at best, a few kind words about my work. As it turned out, one of my cards was picked up at the portfolio show and the next thing I knew I had an agent! A few weeks later, my head still happily spinning, I signed up for our local SCBWI conference here in Western Washington. It was a weekend packed with information and networking, and I started to feel buoyed at the prospect of entering this exciting industry as an author/illustrator. At the very end of the last day of the conference, in what I consider a quintessential SCBWI moment, I had the opportunity to show my story about my quirky little chicken to one of the faculty art directors. Within a few days, and to my utter amazement, my agent informed me I had an offer for my picture book, HENNY! Was this really happening? I felt like the proverbial ingénue on the barstool—suddenly discovered—ready to take the world by storm! 

But here’s the punch line—I’m definitely not the ingénue. I have, in fact, both feet firmly planted in my sixth decade of life, and I definitely did not feel ready. What was I thinking, starting a new career now? I felt an odd mix of euphoria and sheer terror.  How could I compete with all that young, fresh talent? How could I ever measure up to all those seasoned writers and illustrators? How did I get myself into this? But, contract in hand, I had no choice but to sit down and get the job done.  

As I worked, my fears subsided as it became clear to me I really was prepared:  I’ve been to college and graduate school. I’ve been an architect, designer, portrait artist, fine artist, and scientific illustrator.  I’ve had paid jobs and unpaid jobs, and I’ve raised three kids (the ultimate unpaid job). I realized I’ve been on the path to this moment—albeit a long and somewhat circuitous one—all along. 

I also have come to believe that my story could be anyone’s story. We are the sum totals of our experiences and most of us, regardless of whom we are or at what point in our lives we are at, are far more “ready” than we could ever imagine.

Maybe I would have become a published author/illustrator in time, but one thing I am certain of— SCBWI got me in front of the right people, at the right place, at the right time and I will forever be grateful to this wonderful kidlit organization for expediting my trajectory!

So… back to the story:  Cue the author/illustrator…dragging her life’s baggage behind her, nest empty, and rarin’ to go. Contracts have been signed, artwork has been delivered, and I’m ready for the happy ending, er… I mean, beginning!  Thank you, SCBWI.

Elizabeth is represented by Joanna Volpe of New Leaf Literary & Media in New York. Her first picture book, Henny (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books), was released last year. Her next book, Peddles (also with Simon & Schuster), released January 2016.   She lives in Seattle with her husband, and three Scottish Fold cats. Find her online at www.penspaperstudio.com.

As writers and illustrators of children’s books, we have the cutest fantasies. Who else dreams that their work will someday be decorated by a sticker?

And then there’s the conference fantasy, where the agent or editor of your dreams holds your manuscript overhead and says, “This is brilliant!” and she just happens to have a contract in her pocket, which you sign on the spot. It’s almost better than the sticker.

But here’s the thing. People are sometimes asked to send off stories or art, and there are similarly wonderful career-transforming moments. Usually, though, nothing quite so dramatic happens.

And yet… conferences are magic. Truly. Every picture book I’ve ever sold has come directly from my time at an SCBWI conference, specifically the one in Los Angeles. I’ve sold four picture books and have interest in a fifth; each one sprang from an idea or conversation I had at that summer conference, starting with my first one in 2008.

My future editor, Arthur A. Levine, had been in Seattle that spring for a conference, and through a happy accident of seating, we’d chatted through the evening, and he invited me to submit something to him someday. At the time, I was writing an epic novel about a pirate in part because I’d given up on picture books, and in part because, well, I can’t really remember why, which was ultimately the problem with that novel.

At our local spring conference, Arthur had offered sage advice from his then four-year-old son. “When in doubt, write about dinosaurs.” At the time, this didn’t strike me as anything other than adorable. (Who was I to write about dinosaurs, anyway? At the time, I was merely thirty-seven.)

When registration opened for the summer conference in Los Angeles, I really wanted to go. But I couldn’t. We had a family reunion that weekend. And what kind of jerk puts anything in front of family? As it turns out, I am that kind of jerk.

In Los Angeles, Arthur reassured us about the picture book market, which at the time was feeling kind of battered. On the flight home, I resolved to send him a thank-you note for being so encouraging. I looked out the window, and I thought about dinosaurs, and specifically their teeth, and even more fantastically, about who might love their teeth most of all.

Arthur ended up publishing the answer to that question—The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy—five years later. A year or two after I sold The DTF, I mentioned to Arthur at another Los Angeles conference a letter I’d written to my daughter when she asked for the truth about Santa. He said he thought it sounded like a picture book as well. A dear friend I’d met at the Los Angeles conference, Samantha Berger, gave me an idea for how it might be done. I wrote it. Arthur bought it.

Last summer, Samantha and I came up with an idea at the conference while we were eating pizza poolside. So far that has turned into a two picture book deal with Arthur.

These aren’t the sort of things you can predict when you’re thinking about going to a conference. The standard fantasy—that someone might love your work and buy it on the spot—pales in comparison to what really can happen. You go to these conferences and meet people who inspire you. You make friends. You hear words you didn’t know you needed to hear, things that make you laugh and cry, things that feed your mind in ways your everyday routine might not. All of this becomes the fuel of story.

I’d never thought to dream about what comes from inspiration and connection and friendship. And yet this combination is so much better than any contract, and why I’ll go to every SCBWI conference I can.

Fantasies are great and all. But real life? It’s better.

Martha Brockenbrough is the author of the YA novels The Game of Love and Death and Devine Intervention, and The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy, a picture book. Both are with Arthur A. Levine at Scholastic, as is her forthcoming picture book, Love, Santa, as well as two Bigfoot picture books written jointly with Samantha Berger. Martha also wrote the nonfiction middle grade Finding Bigfoot for Feiwel & Friends. In addition to her work on SCBWI's Team Blog, she is the founder of National Grammar Day and author of Things That Make Us [Sic]. Visit www.marthabrockenbrough.squarespace.com and on Twitter @mbrockenbrough.

When Antwon’s kids get a little older, he plans to tell them what he’s been through. A 25-year-old father of three, he’s working hard to give them all a better life.

Today, he is employed as a plumber, studying to get his GED and has completed a leadership and empowerment program for young fathers… twice. But this is a life he never imagined.

Antwon grew up in the Woodland Terrace housing development in Washington, DC where many families live off an annual income of $7000 per year.

“My mother worked on and off. She was raising five kids. She was struggling.” When his siblings’ father, who his family relied on for financial support, passed away, “everything changed.” As the oldest child, Antwon felt a tremendous sense of responsibility.

“The only thing I cared about was taking care of my family, but my mind wasn’t thinking that I could get a job. I wasn’t old enough to get a job. I was 13 at the time, and I got into street life. I was selling drugs.”

Antwon faced time in prison. While he was incarcerated, his mother passed due to a stress induced seizure.

A few weeks before returning home, something hit Antwon. “I had children, and I couldn’t do nothing for them but stand on the block all day. I needed a job. I needed to stay off the streets.”

That’s when Antwon connected with Smart from the Start, a family support, community engagement and school readiness organization. As a First Book partner, the nonprofit helps parents and caretakers become their child’s first teacher by supplying them books to help break the cycle of chronic school underachievement.

“I read to them. They like the sticker books, but I read,” he shares with a smile. “My oldest son, he is in school now. He’s got good grades. I sneak up on him sometimes, but I never let him know I’m coming. I just peek in the classroom. He’s doing good.”

Antwon knows there is work ahead, but he’s incredibly motivated. He needs to earn his GED to get an apprenticeship. Eventually, he wants to become a firefighter. But above all else he wants his kids to have a better life than he had.

“I want to motivate them to do better than I have done – finish school, get a good jobs; if they have kids, take care of their kids, be responsible.”

“It’s crazy,” he tells us, “I’ve seen a lot of things, but now I don’t even look back… My whole life has just changed.”

The post This is a Life He Never Imagined appeared first on First Book Blog.

There’s very little for kids to do in the town of Bluefield, West Virginia. But once a week, eighteen students from different walks of life gather to talk about books.

Suzette Sims, the program services coordinator at the Craft Memorial Library, organized the book club a few years ago. It started with three middle school students and has since grown in size and friendship.

But the library doesn’t have money to buy books. When the book club had just three members, they could obtain books through interlibrary loan.  Now, the program has grown and the book club needs almost twenty copies of books per week to keep it going – an almost impossible task.

Through First Book, Suzette can find enough copies of the books her students love to read.  The students debate, learn and forge friendships.

“This is somewhere they can meet and see their friends once a week,” says Suzette. “It’s a mix of the groups. Some are friends, some didn’t know each other beforehand.”

Along with providing a safe and supportive environment, Suzette hopes to give her students the opportunity to discover their interests and passions.

“The more I can show them about different things – science, art, books – the more they’ll be able to figure out what they’re interested in and what they want to do,” explains Suzette. “I have a lot of hope for these kids. They have such a spark in them – if they want to, they can go anywhere.”

The post Books to Forge Friendships appeared first on First Book Blog.

Dr. Shirley Johnson, in her words, is an educator to the depths of her soul.

Over the last 40 years, she has been a teacher, administrator, union leader, curriculum supervisor and an education advocate.  Most recently, she opened The Resource Room, an afterschool education program for children ages five to 11 in Miami Gardens, Florida.

She is also a long-standing NAACP member and Regional Chair with a long history and deep family roots in the Civil Rights Movement.

Recently, with support from the General Motors Foundation, First Book partnered with NAACP to launch the new national NAACP Reads initiative. The initiative kicked off with an initial distribution of 900 copies of Child of the Civil Rights Movement. Regional Chairs were challenged to read the book to at least 10 children.

Dr. Johnson took the challenge to heart and started by reading the book to the 32 students at one of The Resource Room’s locations.  She has since shared the book, and the joy of reading, with many more children.

“I have never seen children who are so hungry for knowledge. In the middle of my reading of the book, I told the boys and girls that time was up and we would continue the next day.  I was met with the response of the children chanting ‘One more page! One more page!’” she says, “They loved the book so much, just as they love every book. All the children in that location can now read fluently.”

First Book is proud to partner with the GM Foundation. Together, the GM Foundation and First Book have provided 5,000 books to children in need through the national NAACP Reads initiative, 100 Black Men, the National Urban League, CNC, and MANA, A National Latina Organization.

The post One More Page appeared first on First Book Blog.

“So many of our kids have access to books at the library, but rarely do they have a book of their own.  In many homes, a book would represent a real luxury item.” – Kevin Ahern, President, Syracuse Teacher’s Association

With 85 percent of students in the school district eligible for free or reduced lunch, it’s no surprise that Kevin Ahern, President of the Syracuse Teachers Association, was thrilled when presented the opportunity to provide 40,000 free books to his community. All he had to do was sign up 2,000 local teachers and program leaders with First Book.

Luckily, Kevin had plenty of help. Throughout the month of October, the Syracuse Teachers Association, along with local educators, reached out to schools, community centers and the United Way of Central New York to spread the word about First Book – and the chance to receive free books.

Jennifer Horn, a First Grade teacher at Webster Elementary in Syracuse, led the charge to encourage everyone at her school to sign up. “I was knocking on people’s doors, handing them flyers, saying ‘I don’t care if you’re not a teacher, you work with our kids! These are free books, just sign up!’”

The Syracuse Teacher’s Association successfully signed up 2,000 educators. And when 40,000 books arrived, the community rallied together to unpack, sort and distribute. At one point, the show of support was so impressive that there were more volunteers than work to do.

At 8:30 a.m., those who signed up, along with community members and parents streamed through the doors of the civic center. By 11:00 a.m. only one title was left.

“I wish we had a video of the piles of books. They just dwindled and vanished. Kids were picking out books and teachers were getting collections for their classrooms. It was impressive,” said Jennifer.

Jennifer’s excitement and motivation to help stemmed from her students and their families’ need for books. At Webster Elementary, one out of six students does not speak English. In total, 68 languages are spoken through the school, adding an extra challenge to teachers and students alike. In Jennifer’s 14 years of teaching, books have bridged the gap for students like hers.

“The kids love books even if they aren’t able to read the words. They like the pictures, they love tracking words and get really excited when they learn a few words and can recognize them in print!” she shared.

Jennifer allowed her students to choose their favorite book to take home and used some of the books to teach lessons on sharing and honesty.

“One little girl kept giving her book back to me. I said ‘no you can take it home, it’s yours.’ She pointed to her backpack and I told her ‘Yes! You can put it in your backpack and take it home!’”

The post 40,000 Books for Kids In Syracuse appeared first on First Book Blog.

Today’s guest bloggers is Lindsey Roache, Assistant Principal at University Heights Preparatory Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana.

As a principal, I know that if my students are going to care about school, they have to know their school cares about them. Sometimes this means our school buys clothes, purchases bus passes, provides a Thanksgiving meal or adopts a family around the holidays. It also means we make sure our students have great books.

We do our best, but we have limitations. My school has no library, therefore we have a limited amount of books. Our teachers dig into their own pockets to buy books for their students and we apply for grants. We also have First Book.

Last year, when I delivered brand new books and dictionaries to classrooms, the looks on the students’ faces were priceless. The students were incredibly thankful. They felt their importance. They knew that we were committed to investing in their future and helping them in any way possible.

This holiday season, please help our students and others know we care by giving them brand new books. Join me in creating a generation of invested learners who will read, learn and succeed. Please donate to First Book today — every $2.50 you donate through December 31, 2014 will be matched with an in-kind donation of two books from Disney.

The post Investing in My Students appeared first on First Book Blog.

Today’s guest blogger is Robyn Douglas from Down East Dog Scouts Troop 159 in Hancock County, ME.

Cirra with some of her favorite books

I want to tell you about Cirra. In her six years as a reading buddy, Cirra has given hundreds of books to kids. She’s helped dozens of children improve their reading and comprehension. She loves to sit quietly and listen. She is everyone’s best friend.

Cirra is a therapy dog and a member of Downeast Dog Scouts Troop 159. I’m her handler.  Being part of the Children Reading to Dogs program is one of the most rewarding things Cirra and I have ever done.

Many of the kids that participate in our program are struggling readers and are too embarrassed to read aloud, but not with Cirra. When she walks into a school or library, the kids can’t wait to pet her and read with her.

If they stumble over a word or two, Cirra doesn’t mind. I tell them that she would love to learn the troublesome word, and the kids have fun teaching it to her.

One of the many dogs, like Cirra, who help kids become strong readers

By reading with her, Cirra’s buddies become stronger readers. They build self-confidence, empathy and a love of learning. It’s so wonderful to see them take that leap.

At the end of five reading sessions, kids receive a book of their own from Cirra. One boy was so grateful, he promised to treasure it forever and read it to his own grandchildren some day.

Some kids just need a little something extra to get them reading, and having books is the first step. Your support of First Book makes moments like these possible. Please consider making a gift today.

The post Meet the Reading Dogs appeared first on First Book Blog.

Today’s guest blogger, Sarah Kilway, wrote to us after receiving hundreds of new books for her students. We couldn’t resist sharing her story with you.

I teach 187 kids at Ben Davis Ninth Grade Center in Indianapolis, IN. The majority of my students live in poverty. Most have only one parent at home.

Not many of my kids own books, nor were they read to as children. Even as 9th graders, they lack basic common knowledge of fairy tales, fables and iconic book characters.

Our school has many great resources, but when something is lacking, my colleagues and I step in. This often means spending my own money on books and other items for my students, but it’s totally worth it. I also have First Book.

Thanks to First Book, I was recently able to give a new book to every single one of my students – all 187! A few told me it was the first book they’d ever owned. Some said it was the first book they have ever finished. Such a proud moment for me and them – one that I wanted to share with you.

My students now ask me to go to the library on a daily basis.

Please give to First Book today so I can continue helping them discover and enjoy reading, and so other teachers can too. Your support puts a whole new world within their reach.

The post 187 Reasons Why a Teacher Needs Books appeared first on First Book Blog.

Today’s guest blogger Donna Marquardt, a Registered Nurse with the Gaston County Department of Health & Human Services, talks about healthy habits for the new school year.

Back to School is just around the corner and that can mean a lot of different things to different people — a new classroom, new friends, new books. To me, a nurse at a local health department, it means educating kids on how to be healthy.

Healthy kids are less likely to miss days of school due to illness and better-equipped to learn throughout the school year. By engaging in simple healthy practices, like hand washing and eating healthy meals, and vaccinations, kids stay well, in school and learning.

Members of Gaston County Health Department with the books that will be given away at their immunization events.

Vaccinations are a big focus for our health department this year. They’re never fun, no matter your age, but are incredibly important. Thanks to a truckload of books we received from First Book this spring, we are excited to offer an incentive to kids receiving immunizations that will also help them be successful readers: a free book to take home!

Approximately 400 children will be receiving a brand new book at one of our major immunization events. Since kids who do well in school are more likely to live healthy lives, we are thrilled to promote literacy and make getting shots a little more pleasant.

It’s important to teach children healthy habits starting at an early age. And books can help kids learn those lessons in a fun way. Check out these great books that teach kids about healthy living, found on the First Book Marketplace:

“The Berenstain Bears Go To The Doctor” by Stan and Jan Berenstain

It’s time for a routine check-up with Dr. Gert Grizzly. Sister Bear is brave about her booster shot, and Brother Bear is fine, but—achoo!—is that Papa Bear sneezing? A light-hearted approach to the subject with straightforward information.

“Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library: Oh, the Things You Can Do that Are Good for You!: All About Staying Healthy” by Tish Rabe and Aristides Ruiz

With the help of the staff and equipment at a Seussian spa, the Cat in the Hat explains the basics of healthy living, from eating right and getting enough exercise and sleep, to having a positive body image, to the distance and speed of a typical sneeze!

“Germs Make Me Sick!” by Melvin Berger and Marylin Hafner

Germs are all around us every day – in the air, in food, on everything we touch. You can’t see them without a microscope, but they are there. Some germs are harmless, but viruses and bacteria can make you sick. Your body is constantly working to ward off germs, sometimes the germs win, and you get a cold or infection.

We hope you’ll help spread the word about the importance of starting the school year both well and well educated about simple healthy habits. Best wishes for a safe and healthy school year!

Work at a health center, school, or an after school program serving kids in need? Sign up with First Book* by August 11th to be eligible to receive five copies of each of these healthy living titles.

Donna Marquardt has been a Registered Nurse with the Gaston County Department of Health & Human Services in Gastonia, North Carolina for 12 years. She is currently the Charge Nurse over immunizations and is passionate about prevention and ensuring that children and adults receive protection against disease through vaccinations.

The post Three Books to Stay Healthy this School Year appeared first on First Book Blog.

Guest Blogger Chris Dobbins became Director of the Gaston County Department of Health and Human Services on July 1 2013. Dobbins is a 20-year veteran of the US Air Force and is the former Health Director of the Gaston County Health Department.

 

Health departments throughout the country work diligently to help communities live healthful lives.  The Gaston County Department of Health in North Carolina is no exception.  Promoting fitness, encouraging healthy nutritional practices, preventing teen pregnancy and helping women during and after pregnancy are just some of the services we provide to promote overall well-being.

But, rarely do we have an opportunity to engage in primary prevention, activities that prevent the onset of poor health, that people both need and want.

Research shows children who do well in school are likely to achieve good lifelong health so we teamed up with First Book under the banner of Literacy is Health, in partnership with Gaston County Schools.

Earlier this year, we distributed a 40,000 books from First Book to nearly 2,000 public school teachers, recreation specialists, volunteers at church-based after-school programs, staff at day care centers, and our own employees.  Each of the books given to these individuals made its way into the hands of a child in need.  While getting books into the hands of children and seeing the smiles on their faces is its own reward, we were also able to provide primary prevention to our community.

Now, we’re working with community groups to prepare low-income parents to read to their children so they enter school ready and excited to learn.  We believe this will improve our county’s graduation rates, our residents’ prospects for employment and the health of our community. This is an opportunity our health department simply could not pass up – and one that many smiling children love.

If you serve kids in need in your community be sure to sign up with First Book today—I’m sure glad we did!

The post Healthy Minds Mean Healthy Lives appeared first on First Book Blog.

Cathy Gifford, like so many program directors, was on a tight budget. In 2011, the director at Jean Dean RIF (Reading is Fundamental) found herself needing to cut 14,000 books from her program. This meant that many of the children she served in her Alabama town would go without the gift of reading this year.

Cathy came to First Book with her dilemma. Because she needed many copies of a few specific titles, we were able to complete a special order for her – working with publishers to drive down the cost of each book to a price Jean Dean RIF could afford.

The result?  Over the last three years Cathy has been able to purchase 45,000 books to be distributed through Jean Dean RIF for only $114,000.  That’s an average of just $2.50 per book, and  savings of 64% overall.  And most importantly, 25,000 kids every year are getting brand new books – many for the first time – to give them a strong start in life.

Every year, Alabama RIF helps close to 25,000 at-risk young children receive three books in their homes to help them succeed when they get to school, and go on to thrive in life thanks to our partnership and your generosity.

Need more than 1,000 copies of a single title? Reach out to us about a Special Order at [email protected].  We look forward to helping you get all the books you need for your kids!

The post Success Stories: 45,000 More Books in Alabama appeared first on First Book Blog.

Classrooms packed, desks emptied, another school year complete. It’s officially summertime, and for kids, that means three precious months of sweet, sticky freedom.

But when kids from low-income families leave school for the summer, the outlook isn’t always so sunny.  While their more affluent peers may be visiting libraries, attending summer camp and reading their favorite stories every night, kids in need often spend the summer months without access to books and learning opportunities.

Over the years, those months add up – by the end of 5^th grade, kids from low-income families are nearly three grades behind their peers in reading skills.

But there’s good news! Books beat summer slide.

Studies show that kids’ reading skills improve when they have access to books over the summer – and this is especially true for kids in need. In fact, children who are given access to books over the course of three summers perform 35-40% better on reading achievement tests than those without.

Together we can fight summer slide by getting books into the hands of kids in need.  Share this infographic with your friends to spread the word.

You can also join the fight by signing up to get more news about combating summer slide and other great tips for summer learning.

The post Books Beat Summer Slide appeared first on First Book Blog.

This piece also appears on The Huffington Post’s Impact blog.

Steve White, a volunteer at a local nonprofit, worked through the holidays to ensure that 3,000 kids in need in Denver would have brand-new books of their own at Christmas.

Elisa Mayo, the finance coordinator for a school district in Mississippi, helped students at her Title I school get the books — and the encouragement — they needed to start book clubs, and now dozens of students, from third to fifth grade, voluntarily skip recess to meet and to talk about their new books.

A community group in Navajo County, Arizona was so determined to have a free library for local children that they raised money through bake sales, started with a donated room in a nearby gas station, and eventually came up with the funds to build a library.

These everyday heroes all have something in common. They are part of First Book, a nonprofit network of teachers, librarians, community leaders and program administrators serving kids in need — a network that stretches across the country and around the world.

These men and women and thousands more like them are working every day to transform the lives of children from poor neighborhoods, and they know how desperate the need is. Kids from low-income families lack the resources that many of their middle and upper-class peers take for granted. Every study confirms the impact that has on their futures. One study that never fails to shock revealed that, while children in affluent neighborhoods had access to an average of 13 books a day, there is only a single age-appropriate book for every 300 children.

First Book is working to change that. We partner with the publishing industry to provide books — brand-new, high-quality books — to the teachers and program leaders who sign up with us. Our network is the fastest-growing group of educators in the country serving kids in need: we just reached the incredible milestone of 100,000 registered schools and programs.

Reaching that milestone is exciting, because that means that we’re reaching more children in need than ever.

But there’s another reason why bringing so many educators together matters.

By joining First Book, the people we serve are acknowledging something important: we have more power collectively than we do as individuals. It’s one of the most powerful ideas in human history, from the birth of cities to the workers’ unions that built the country to the marvelous online social networks that are transforming how we communicate.

We’ve already seen the impact this can have. For example, at one point, there was no bilingual edition (English and Spanish together) of the perennial children’s classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but the educators we work with requested it repeatedly. Based on that feedback, we were able to go to the publisher and show that there was real demand. A bilingual edition rolled off the presses shortly thereafter, a book now available to all children and families.

This unprecedented network is also the source of valuable insight into the needs of those serving children at the base of the economic pyramid. There is no group of people whose voices are more critical to our collective future; what they have to say about the 30 million children living in low-income families in the United States and their futures is of paramount importance to us all.

Everyone at First Book is proud of our role in supporting this network. But we know there’s much, much more to be done. We estimate that there are 1.3 million educators and program leaders out there eligible to join us, and we’re doing everything we can to connect every single one.

The post The Collective Power of a Nation of Readers appeared first on First Book Blog.

496 million. That’s how many women in the world can’t read or write even the most simple sentence. Many women never have the opportunity to reach 6th grade, and some don’t get to go to school at all.

Today, we join citizens around the world in celebrating International Women’s Day, and I want to share the stories of Dinah Mwangi and Katie Hendricks, two special women whose lives exemplify the theme of this year’s celebration, “Equality for Women is Progress for All.”

Dinah makes progress for all in Nairobi, Kenya. While waiting in line at a carwash, Dinah noticed two young boys straining to see what she was reading – a children’s book she had purchased for her niece. When she asked if they would like to join her, the boys lit up.

They read, and laughed and shared stories with Dinah. Then they told her they had no books of their own.

Dinah started buying books with her own salary and recruited volunteers to read and distribute them to kids each Saturday. In less than three months, she had over 500 kids participating. Now she’s pursuing relationships with Kenyan publishers, corporations and funders in order to expand her reach and deepen her impact.

On the other side of the world, Katie makes progress for all by helping girls from low-income families in California’s East Bay bridge the gap between school and home.

As a young teacher, Katie yearned to improve all aspects of her students’ lives, inside and outside the classroom. Her holistic approach led her to create Girls Inc. of Alameda County, a program that inspires girls to be strong, smart and bold. Katie and her team reinforce what their girls learn at school, help them become fluent English speakers, provide them with healthy meals and expose them to subjects girls aren’t always encouraged to study, like science, technology and athletics.

By improving the lives of girls in California’s East Bay, Katie also improves the lives of their family members, teachers, friends and classmates.

Dinah and Katie represent what’s possible when women have the education, resources and motivation to make progress for all. Their immediate impact on the kids they serve is immense. Equally powerful, however, is how their spirit and service ripple through entire communities, transform lives and change the future.

In addition to celebrating heroic women like Dinah and Katie, I invite you to join me in recommitting ourselves to becoming a powerful force for equality.

The gender gap has closed significantly over the past few decades, but we still have a long way to go. In some countries, less than a quarter of women finish primary school; 496 million women around the world cannot read or write a simple sentence; and globally, women only reach 93 percent of men’s educational attainment.

I believe the path to equality is through access to quality education. That’s why First Book is equipping educators like Dinah and Katie with brand-new books and resources for the kids they serve, expanding our network to reach women and girls around the globe and lifting up the voices of an unprecedented community of individuals serving children at the base of the economic pyramid.

Please consider a gift to First Book today. Together, we can support the work of heroic women like Dinah and Katie around the world.

The post 496 Million Women appeared first on First Book Blog.

Even in a slowly recovering economy, Americans are still givers, donating over $316 billion last year (an increase of 3.5% over the previous year), with the vast majority of that money coming not from companies or foundations, but from individual donors.

At First Book, we rely on the generosity of our donors to help put new books into the hands of kids in need. But we understand how difficult it can be to make decisions about where your money will be used most effectively.

Which is why we’re pleased to share some great news: for the third year in a row, First Book has been awarded four stars — the highest rating possible — by Charity Navigator, the leading charity evaluator in America.

Charity Navigator rates nonprofit organizations to provide donors with reliable data about the impact, efficiency and fiscal health of the organizations, and their online rankings are visited more than all other charity ratings groups combined. So we’re pleased to earn this distinction and proud that we’re using your gifts effectively to help children in need.

When you donate to First Book, 97% of your donation goes directly to putting brand-new books into the hands of educators serving kids in need — not to administrative and fundraising costs.

If you have any questions about how First Book operates, or exactly how your donations are used, we’d love to hear them! Get in touch through Facebook or Twitter, or send us an email.

Click here to see First Book’s profile on Charity Navigator.

The post Are My Charitable Dollars Going to Good Use? appeared first on First Book Blog.

Even in a slowly recovering economy, Americans are still givers, donating over $316 billion last year (an increase of 3.5% over the previous year), with the vast majority of that money coming not from companies or foundations, but from individual donors.

At First Book, we rely on the generosity of our donors to help put new books into the hands of kids in need. But we understand how difficult it can be to make decisions about where your money will be used most effectively.

Which is why we’re pleased to share some great news: for the third year in a row, First Book has been awarded four stars — the highest rating possible — by Charity Navigator, the leading charity evaluator in America.

Charity Navigator rates nonprofit organizations to provide donors with reliable data about the impact, efficiency and fiscal health of the organizations, and their online rankings are visited more than all other charity ratings groups combined. So we’re pleased to earn this distinction and proud that we’re using your gifts effectively to help children in need.

When you donate to First Book, 97% of your donation goes directly to putting brand-new books into the hands of educators serving kids in need — not to administrative and fundraising costs.

If you have any questions about how First Book operates, or exactly how your donations are used, we’d love to hear them! Get in touch through Facebook or Twitter, or send us an email.

Click here to see First Book’s profile on Charity Navigator.

The post Are My Charitable Dollars Going to Good Use? appeared first on First Book Blog.

I want to tell you a story about Keondra.

In a few days, Keondra will start second grade at Harrowgate Elementary School in Chester, Virginia. She cannot wait to be back in the classroom.

When she began elementary school, Keondra was a reluctant reader. She struggled academically. And then she had to repeat first grade.

But Keondra’s teacher recognized her potential and turned to First Book. Thanks to the support of our generous donors, she was able to give Keondra a new book to take home and read every month.

That’s why I’m invite everyone to join First Book’s Monthly Book Club. Your monthly gift is easy to make and provides an ongoing supply of new, high-quality books to kids like Keondra.

With each month and each new book, Keondra became a stronger reader. Her grades improved – from D’s to B’s. She fell in love with books.

A new school year is about to begin, and there are millions of kids like Keondra who urgently need to be transformed by a love of books before it is too late. Please consider joining today.

The post Meet Keondra appeared first on First Book Blog.

Click on graphic to enlarge.

For kids, few moments in life are more glorious than the end of the school year and the start of summer vacation. Hooray! Three whole months of sweet freedom!

But when school’s out, kids from low-income families have a real problem on their hands.

Unlike their more affluent peers, most of them don’t spend summer break at the library or reading books in the backseat on family trips. In fact, many of them won’t open a book until school starts up again.

Those three months off take a disastrous toll. Experts call the effect “summer slide” and it erases months of hard-earned progress in school, lost ground that kids in need can’t afford.

Books are the answer. Studies show that kids from low-income families who have access to books over the summer not only beat the summer slide, but make even greater gains than kids from wealthy and middle-class families.

You can help save a child from summer slide by putting books into her hands. Click here to help.

The post Kids Who Read Beat Summer Slide appeared first on First Book Blog.

“If you can do one thing to prepare yourself for the future… you should spend as much time as you can with people who are different than you”. — President Bill Clinton

I recently had the opportunity to join Kyle Zimmer, First Book’s president and CEO, at a special event for the Thea Foundation. Founded by Linda and Paul Leopoulos shortly after the untimely death of their daughter Thea Kay, the Thea Foundation connects young people to the power of visual art, dance, drama, and creative writing across Arkansas and beyond.

At First Book we’re eager to learn from the success of the Thea Foundation and we hope to work with Linda, Paul and others to help bring the arts to life for all students, regardless of their economic situations, including the hundreds of thousands of children in First Book’s national network of low-income classrooms and programs.

Thea Kay Leopoulos (photo from theafoundation.org)

But by the end of her junior year, Thea was making A’s and B’s in difficult subjects (an A in Trigonometry!) and loving school. As they came to terms with losing their daughter, Linda and Paul sought to understand what happened in Thea’s life that caused such a drastic academic transformation.

The answer: her new involvement in visual art, dance, drama and creative writing. This made all the difference for Thea; an idea strongly supported by research.

Chandler Arnold, Bill Clinton & Kyle Zimmer celebrating the Thea Foundation

The thing I’ll remember most? The President’s advice to an eight-year-old over dinner: “If you can do one thing to prepare yourself for the future… you should spend as much time as you can with people who are different than you”.

Wise advice for all of us; eight-year-olds and grown-ups alike.

Kyle also asked him if Hillary would be running for President in a few years, but we’ll keep his answer to ourselves.

NOTE: We are grateful for the generosity of Dr. Martha Bernadett of the Molina Foundation for making our participation in this event possible.

Chandler Arnold is First Book’s executive vice president.

The post What I Learned from Bill Clinton: How to Prepare Yourself for the Future appeared first on First Book Blog.

Last year First Book made it a goal to reach more kids in need by doubling the number of local schools and community programs in our national network, from 25,000 to 50,000.

We’ve reached that number! Over 50,000 Title I classrooms, early childhood education programs, afterschool programs, museums and libraries, housing authorities, faith-based organizations, military family support programs, health clinics and others are signed up with First Book, and every one of them now has permanent, ongoing access to a steady stream of brand-new, high-quality books and educational resources.

That’s terrific news, and we’re grateful to all the partners and supporters that helped us get there.

But we’re not knocking off work just yet. There are 30 million children in the United States living in low-income homes, and access to books is scarce for far too many of them. There are over 1.3 million programs and classrooms still waiting for us, and we need to reach them all.

Help make that happen! If you know someone who works with kids from low-income families, tell them about First Book. Forward them this blog post, or send them to our website, where they can sign up.

It’s quick, it’s free, and we have brand-new books just waiting for them.

Happy holidays, from everyone at First Book!

We had a big year here at First Book! I want to let you know everything we accomplished this year, and ask for your support as we continue our work to transform education by bringing new books to children from low-income families.

First Book celebrated two big milestones this year – our 20th anniversary and the distribution of our 100 millionth book. We also expanded the First Book network to bring brand-new books to a lot more teachers, librarians and local program leaders; 22,000 new schools and programs signed up in 2012, an increase of 92%.

On top of that, we delivered 11.2 million books, started local First Book volunteer chapters in a dozen new communities, and started offering critical new categories of books that teachers tell us are badly needed: anti-bullying books, healthy living books, bilingual/non-English titles and more.

But I don’t want to overwhelm you with numbers and statistics.

What all those things mean is new, high-quality books into the hands of kids from low-income families, the books they desperately need to succeed – in school and in life.

I will share with you a comment we received recently from Sue Carnes, a librarian at Kate Bell Elementary in Houston, about working with First Book to get new books for her students this year:

“First Book is the light at the end of the tunnel, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I wish you could have seen the smiles on the faces of the kids and teachers. Our students are never without a book now, even when the library is closed. Sometimes when things sound too good to be true, they are both good and true.”

Thank you so much for your support of First Book and the children who are counting on us.

Kyle Zimmer
President, First Book

Santa may have been busy this holiday season but that didn’t stop him from visiting Los Molinos Unified School District to deliver books to many kids.

Students from Los Molinos Elementary School and four other schools in the Northern California area all participated in a yearly breakfast with Santa event.  In past years, students received little gifts from Santa and his elves. This year, students received the gift of reading.

Los Molinos Unified School District is an area where 85% of students are on free and reduced lunch and are Title I. This is an area where most families live in extreme poverty so getting books to give out at this event seemed challenging. That’s when Los Molinos turned to First Book. Since books are available at such affordable prices, students from five different elementary schools all took home brand-new books to call their own.

“Parents, teachers and children could not believe that Santa would bring them such a gift”, said Jill Botts, LMUSD Board of Trustees President.

Holiday cheer was spread to many children this year as they turned through the pages of their new books with much spirit this season.

Anyone who works with kids in need is eligible to get books from First Book. To sign up, visit First Book on the web.

* Click on the graphic to see a bigger, snazzier version.

Learn more about how First Book provides new books to kids in need, and how you can get involved, at firstbook.org.