January 1st - January 31st
Open Books is a nonprofit that provides literacy experiences and inspiring programs for tens of thousands of readers each year through the sale of new and gently used donated books.
In middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1. In low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children.
61% of low-income families have NO books at all in their homes for their children.
Children in low-income families lack essential one-on-one reading time. The average child growing up in a middle class family has been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading. The average child growing up in a low-income family, in contrast, has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading.
37% of children arrive at kindergarten WITHOUT the skills necessary for lifetime learning.
There is almost a 90% probability that a child will remain a poor reader at the end of the fourth grade if the child is a poor reader at the end of first grade.
