A collection of our favorite authors and illustrators sat down to help us tell the story of First Book: The Story of First Book from First Book on Vimeo. Read More

Today’s guest blogger is Anita Merina, the National Coordinator for ‘Read Across America’, a National Education Association initiative. Every year on March 2nd educators, parents, grandparents, athletes, actors, politicians, and kids join together for Read Across America Day to celebrate reading. Read More

Today is the first annual First Book Friendiversary! We are very excited. A Friendiversary, of course, is the anniversary of a friendship. Think of one of your oldest and dearest friends. When did you first meet? How did you meet? That story is the story… Read More

We are thrilled to announce that First Book is donating one million new books to elementary school students across the country in celebration of the launch of Target Read With MeSM. When Target was looking for a partner to help make this unprecedented… Read More

Founded in 1979, Irving Burton Associates is a woman-owned professional and technical services firm providing expert program management and advanced technology solutions to government and commercial clients. IBA delivers program management and technical solutions to over 40 program offices in the federal sector… Read More

First Book’s mission of providing books to children from low-income families could not be accomplished without support from organizations that provide direct services. This year, First Book partnered with the National Head Start Association (NHSA) to help prepare children for school by putting… Read More

This months group is an overseas program founded by a member of First Books long standing partner, Pi Beta Phi. This post features an individual that is volunteering abroad, and taking her passion for literacy to all corners of the world. Kentucky Beta member Ann Enderly Walker’s family began a Christian-based nonprofit organization providing short-term medical and humanitarian care throughout the world. The organization, His Healing Hands, works to make a difference in the world to those caught in the vicious cycle of poverty and disease. “Medical backgrounds and a willingness to serve caused my husband and I to get involved,” Ann says. “I am a retired registered nurse, and my husband is a retired firefighter. We both feel very strongly about giving back to those less fortunate.” Ann and her husband fell in love with volunteer service after their first trip to China. “The plight of the people we saw was unbelievable; yet their humility, joy for life and gratitude for the care we gave them convinced us that we were the lucky ones,” Ann says. “Although we touched their lives Read More

In celebration of the release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams, is donating 26,000 new books to First Book! The children’s book series has introduced many children to the joy of reading and with this donation, First Book hopes to touch… Read More

This Month’s Recipient Group: The Shyann Kindness Project. “The mission of The Shyann Kindness Project is to pass on kindness by providing fun and needed items to children in stressful situations, while inspiring the performance of random acts of kindness and acceptance of others.” The Shyann Kindness Project has served over 8,000 children since April 2006, and is comprised of three programs: the Kindness Gift-Giving Program, Shyann’s Helping Hands, and Shyann’s Mentors Program. Kindness Gift Giving Events occur twice a month at venues such as hospital emergency rooms and clinics, homeless feeding programs, shelters for women and children, and after-school programs in low-income areas. During Kindness Gift-Giving Events, volunteers distribute Kindness Gift Packages to children that consist of toys, crafts, stuffed animals, and brand new books provided by First Book after an interactive talk about the importance of kindness and acceptance of all people. Read More

Around First Book there is a lot of talk about books. Go figure, right?  We talk about the bilingual edition of Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar, Ezra Jack Keat’s Snowy Day, Rosemary Well’s Bunny Money, Curious George, The Cat in the Hat and even what books got us hooked.  And while we spend a lot of time discussing children’s books, we rarely talk about, well, what we’re reading. So I set out to find out what books my fellow First Bookers were reading to wrap up the summer. And so now, I present to you (drumroll, please . . . ) the 2010 Summer Reading Superlatives: Most Read Around the Office Committed, a Skeptic’s Guide to Marriage, by Elizabeth Gilbert Yummiest Reads for Foodies In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan My Life in France, by Julia Child Read More