I spend a lot of time here at First Book in Washington D.C. talking with our Recipient Groups about how to receive books, but last week I was able to experience the thrill of providing books to the children that need them most first-hand! Early Sunday morning, I packed up my laptop and left the humid heat of Washington, D.C. for the humid heat of Oklahoma City to distribute 330,000books as part of National Summer Learning Day with the help of our fantastic partners at Disney Publishing Worldwide and Feed the Children! Upon landing in Oklahoma, Erin Carlstrom from Feed the Children met Larry, Mitali, Rachael and myself and whisked us off to local Oklahoma City schools to help prepare for reading events which took place on June 21st, National Summer Learning Day. The next day we had a busy schedule driving throughout Oklahoma City hosting events at three local schools. These events went off without a hitch thanks to help from the Oklahoma City Fire Department, Sheriff’s office, staff from the Lieutenant Governor’s office, Feed the Children, and local Reach out and Read employees.  We spent the day discussing the importance of summer reading, our favorite places to read in the hot summer, our favorite books to read over and over by the pool – and then surprised the kids with books for them to take home and read all summer Read More

Summer Reading: 60 titles for 92 days. Having trouble deciding what to read this season? Let the  LA Times help you with a selection, made by the Times’ book editors, of forthcoming titles. July Reviews of the Latest Spanish-Language Titles for children. This libraryjournal.com… Read More

Name: Tonya S.  Where is your home town? Edmonton, KY—where there is only 1 stoplight and 1 McDonald’s in the entire county. What do you do at First Book? Work to strengthen and establish new partnership with other nonprofit organizations and secondary stakeholders What book… Read More

This Month’s Recipient Group: Pleasant Glade Elementary is a school wide title one program that targets children for their home visitor program. The program funds individuals who work with families nominated by teachers. These families tend to have children in lower grades and are somehow at risk. For instance, a home visitor will model how to read an age appropriate book with a child in a family with a second language using one of the age appropriate Spanish titles offered by the First Book Marketplace. Pleasant Glade Elementary also conducts a “club house”, which is an after school program held three nights a week, where children are given the opportunity to work with home visitors for extra reading help. Pleasant Glade Elementary has also used extra parent funds to purchase a number of books through the First Book Marketplace. They have purchased a wide variety of books, including Spanish titles. How many children do you serve and what are their age ranges? The home visitor program serves approximately 12 families a year. Books are Read More

Exciting news! First Book has been selected to be one of 50 nonprofits showcased in this year’s Members Project from American Express and TakePart.  If First Book can win the most votes in the Education category between now and August 22, we will win $200,000 – enough… Read More

  Today not only marks the first day of summer, but it’s also Summer Learning Day! Communities across the country are celebrating the importance of summer learning by hosting events that demonstrate the value of keeping the children in your community learning during the summer months. Read More

Together Time 4 Families seeks to reinforce the importance of books and reading in the home. Activities shared on this blog are a great resource for parents looking to involve the entire family in literacy fun. First Book’s Post Pick: Early Literacy Summer… Read More

In 1996, in a synthesis of 39 separate studies, researchers found that the average student, returning to school in September has lost the equivalent of 1.0 to 2.6 months of previous learning—in effect, erasing this amount of learning from their mind. According to the report, the biggest losses occur in the areas of spelling and computational math (multiplication, addition, etc.).   The good news for both parents and students is [by having a summer learning plan and acting on it] that this “academic atrophy” can be reduced and even eliminated. -    Rob Stringer, Educational and Parenting Consultant, July 15, 2005 Many parents are unaware of the effect summer break may have on their childs learning achievement.  The "summer slide" describes what happens when young minds sit idle for three months. Experts agree that children who read during the summer gain reading skills, while those who do not often Read More