Mission: To provide easy access to the best children's books, and educate parents to read aloud with children for future success in school and life.
Compelling Problem: Many of our children lack the essential skills and resources to succeed in school. 35% of children enter kindergarten lacking basic pre-literacy skills and are unprepared to learn. By fourth grade, 70% cannot read at grade level.
Access to Quality Books is Fundamental to Reading Success • Access to books is the most important factor in positively impacting reading scores in a community. • Almost two-thirds of low-income families have no age-appropriate books for children in their homes. • Over 80% of low-income child care centers lack age-appropriate books, book corners, and other print materials for young children.
Reading Aloud to Children is Critical for School Success • "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children." • The more times a week children are read to by a parent, the higher their kindergarten readiness scores. • How well children read eventually affects how they learn and ultimately influences their chances for school success. • Only half of children are read to on a regular basis
Innovative Solutions: Bring Me A Book®, a 501(c)(3) award winning literacy nonprofit, was founded to serve children who do not have access to quality books and who are not read aloud to on a regular basis. We provide libraries of quality, hardback children's books and read aloud training to over 181,000 children and families in 310 sites. Through innovative library and training programs, BMAB reaches low income children and families in preschools, childcare centers, health clinics, homeless shelters, and in the workplace. We serve the neediest children throughout the state of California, with regional sites in SF Bay Area, Los Angeles area, Central Valley, and Sacramento. We also have affiliates in Florida and Hong Kong.
Bring Me A Book® Programs: BMAB currently offers 3 turn-key, innovative, sustainable, product-based programs that are easily replicated on a large scale:
1) The Bookcase Library Program places maple bookcases filled with 30-40 quality, age-appropriate and culturally diverse children's books in multiple languages into pre-schools, classrooms, childcare centers, shelters and waiting rooms. All of the books are selected by internationally renowned literacy expert, Kay Goines. Funded by donors, foundations, community organizations and businesses, the Bookcase Libraries are affordable ($600-$700) and include a plaque and bookplates identifying the donor or funding organization, thereby providing inexpensive but highly visible naming opportunities.
2) The Take Home Book Program provides businesses with an easy to install and maintain yet highly effective Book Bag Library in the Workplace. The program benefits all employees with families as well as individuals who are English language learners. By bringing this resource into the workplace, the employer is providing an easily accessible selection of quality hardcover children's books and audio recordings that enhance reading skills and language acquisition. The Book Bag Library is an inexpensive, yet highly valuable employee benefit that positively impacts the entire family of the employee and the community at large.
3) The First Teachers™ Workshops Program enhances both BMABF Library programs by engaging and educating parents, childcare providers, and teachers on the critical importance of reading aloud and read aloud strategies. The curriculum is interactive and highly visual and uses "modeling the message" techniques to empower and educate parents with young children to become their child's "first teachers." The goals of the training are to help parents, childcare providers, and teachers overcome the barriers to reading aloud to children and motivate them to incorporate reading aloud into their daily ritual – supporting emergent literacy skills, school readiness and family bonding experiences.
