Bring Bilingual Books & Materials to Children 0-8

Raising A Reader is finishing another school year strong! The program saw significant expansion as we added new affiliates and grew our School Age program. Every day that a Raising A Reader bag filled with books is in the home of a child, a magical and transformative experience takes place.

Christie Speck from the Solano Community College Children’s Program in California stated,

“One hundred thirty children and their parents participate in our RAR program weekly. A majority of the parents attended the workshops offered to promote daily reading.  RAR was listed as a favorite family activity during the resent program evaluation.  Recently a parent told me she and her son were on their way home after school when her son yelled, ‘STOP! We have to go back to school; I forgot my books.’  She told him she had things to do and wasn't able to go back to school. Her son cried and said, ‘I need my red book pack.’  She realized at that moment the importance of the RAR program and turned the car around and headed back to school to retrieve the books.”

Below are some highlights…

• Raising A Reader is currently represented in 33 states + Washington, D.C.
• There are 159 Raising A Reader Affiliates with a total of 2,751 Implementation Sites.

The implementation sites were in a variety of settings: family home daycares, child care centers, preschools, Head Starts, housing communities, home visiting programs, libraries, school districts, etc.

• A total of 130,352 children were rotating red RAR bags into their homes and engaging in book cuddling routines with their families.
• Raising A Reader families speak a variety of languages including: English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Somali, Burmese, Navajo, and Portuguese.

Raising A Reader continues to support thousands of families in developing reading routines, practice early literacy skills by sharing award-winning books, and sustain home literacy habits through libraries by arming families with a love of reading. Thank you for your ongoing generosity and all you do to support children and families across the country. We couldn’t do it without you!