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Open Book for the New River Valley gives books to children in our communities to help them become life-long readers.  Since November 2016, we have donated more than 3500 books through organizations like local libraries, Little Friendly Libraries, Head Start, summer free lunch programs, and the community health clinic.  We especially need high-quality books for babies and young children, but books for all ages from babies to high school students are all welcome.
If you prefer to make a tax-deductible financial donation, you can support our work through our online fundraiser with First Book Marketplace https://support.firstbook.org/fundraiser/1164814,  Your $20 contribution to our fundraiser will enable us to give five brand-new Dr. Seuss books and help start one more child on the road to reading.

 

Your help can make all the difference in the world to kids in our community:

The only behavior measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the    number of books in the home. The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, 1998

The most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children is to increase their access to print. Newman, Sanford, et all. “American’s Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy”; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2000.

Creating a steady stream of new, age-appropriate books has been shown to nearly triple interest in reading within months. Harris, Louis. An Assessment of the Impact of First Book’s Northeast Program. January 2003.

Source: https://www.ferstfoundation.org/resources/fifty-top-literacy-statistics

For children in poverty, one of the biggest obstacles to literacy development is the scarcity of books in the home. The ratio of books to children in middle-class homes is 13:1. In low income neighborhoods, it’s 1:300.

Source: Neuman, Susan B. and David K. Dickinson, ed. Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 2. New York, NY 2006, p. 3).