First Book Expands Support for Public Libraries Serving Under-Resourced Communities

Posted in: Press Room

Nonprofit offers deep discounts on new books and free educational resources to help eligible libraries strengthen community outreach programming. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON (March 31) – First Book, a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing access to quality education, is expanding its outreach to public libraries serving under-resourced communities. The organization... Read more

First Book and The Moth Launch National Storytelling Partnership for Children and Educators in Low-Income Communities

Posted in: Our Partners, Press Room

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports educational programming with $250,000 grant. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON (Feb. 12) – First Book, a national nonprofit that expands educational opportunities for children in under-resourced communities, and The Moth, a global leader in the art and craft of personal storytelling, are launching an unprecedented national... Read more

First Book Selected as a Beneficiary of The 2025 New York Times Communities Fund Holiday Giving Campaign

Posted in: Our Partners, Press Room

Through this year’s campaign, The New York Times invites readers to support the power of education; beloved author Mary Pope Osborne kicks off donations to First Book with a $50,000 matching grant FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW YORK (Nov. 25) – For the sixth consecutive year, the national nonprofit First Book... Read more

First Book and Penguin Random House Celebrate 42 Million Children’s Books Distributed Together Through 25-Year Partnership

Posted in: Our Partners, Press Room

Nov. 17 celebrations include a virtual reading with bestselling author Mary Pope Osborne, and panel discussion with educators on overcoming the decline in reading for pleasure FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 — Leading global trade publisher Penguin Random House and First Book, the national nonprofit that expands educational opportunities... Read more

How Book Bans Are Impacting Teachers and Students: Insights from First Book Research & Insights

Posted in: First Book Research & Insights, For Educators

Over the last several years, book bans and restrictions have dramatically increased across the United States. Organizations like the American Library Association (ALA) and PEN America have been tracking these trends, but there has been little data on how these efforts to limit access to books are affecting educators and... Read more

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Magic Tree House Collection

Posted in: For Educators, Impact Stories, Our Partners

This year is the 30th anniversary of Mary Pope Osborne’s beloved Magic Tree House series. The incredibly popular series, published by Penguin Random House, has sold over 143 million books worldwide and includes over one hundred titles. Those titles include the Merlin Missions subseries for advanced readers and the Magic... Read more

The Cost of Empty Bookshelves: Kyle Zimmer, First Book President, Co-founder, and CEO

Posted in: Focus on First Book

Empty bookshelves in school libraries, kids without backpacks or lunch or socks, educators shelling out an average of $500 a year to outfit their classrooms–this is why we do what we do at First Book. And this year, we have the opportunity to make sure that every back-to-school start is... Read more

What if Educators Had Everything They Needed? Kyle Zimmer, First Book President, Co-founder, and CEO

Posted in: Focus on First Book

By Kyle Zimmer, president, co-founder, and CEO of First Book. This post first appeared on Medium on June 12, 2018. A Texas elementary school media specialist recently shared a 43-second video that blew me away. In the video, a young boy named Isaiah holds a book by award-winning author Kwame Alexander, and... Read more

First Book Response to Charlottesville

Posted in: Focus on First Book

The following is a statement by Kyle Zimmer, President, CEO and Co-founder, First Book: Our nation is reeling from the unrest in Charlottesville and the hateful rhetoric that is reverberating across the country. These groups and their acts of bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, Islamophobia, transphobia, and homophobia are repulsive and counter... Read more

First Book President and CEO awarded EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017, Mid-Atlantic

Posted in: Focus on First Book

Kyle Zimmer, First Book’s president, CEO and co-founder, was awarded EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017 Mid-Atlantic Award for social entrepreneurship last week, in recognition of First Book’s nonprofit, market-driven, disruptive innovation model that is creating equal access to quality education for kids in need. Access to books is the... Read more