First Book Blog
Stories of impact, the latest research, best practices, curated book lists, and more.
All I Ever Wanted… Stories of Children of the Incarcerated
"All I Ever Wanted…" is a very special book, written by nine young people with parents in prison and one older woman looking back, with the goal of helping others to know how it feels to go through the rites of passage of childhood and adolescence without a father or mother, and how it feels to suddenly find out the truth. Read more
Q&A with Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Author Partner, Tom Angleberger
What could be better than pizza and books? For us at First Book, not much! Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT! program will provide 10,000 books to classrooms for the 2019-2020 school year via First Book to encourage students to find joy in reading. We spoke with this year’s BOOK IT! author... Read more
How Educators Use “All Are Welcome” in the Classroom
From arts and craft projects that inspire students to own their uniqueness to conversations of diversity and inclusion, several educators have used All Are Welcome to create opportunities for students to celebrate inclusivity within their community. Read more
Imagine A School Without A Library
Ed. Note: Originally posted in April 2016, the significance of abundant, diverse school libraries still holds relevancy today. Libraries are the gatekeepers to cultural, social, and individual growth and must continue acting as an inviting, welcoming development hub for students and teachers. Today’s guest blog post is by bestselling children’s... Read more
Welcome All Kids with Respect & Empathy
Developing respect and empathy skills requires time, practice, repetition, interaction, and patience with others. In our toolkit, Promoting Respect & Empathy: A Toolkit for Educators of All Grades, we’ve collected activities, tips, book recommendations, and more from First Book educators across the country, who, like you, support kids in under-resourced... Read more
This Educator Didn’t Punish Troublesome Kids. She Gave Them a Closet Full of Stuff.
The following post his blog post was written by Amanda Pell at Upworthy & first published on Upworthy.com in November 2017. This time last year, the top three most misbehaved boys at Equetta Jones’ elementary school were from the same family. As assistant principal, it fell to Jones to figure... Read more
Kids Need Books Of All Kinds
Thanks to Jarrett Lerner, author and illustrator, and supporters like you, thousands of kids in low-income communities across the country are receiving new books and resources from First Book. Lerner is encouraging all to wear their hearts on their sleeves, with a custom designed T-shirt that features the phrase, “Kids... Read more