I can’t tell you how thrilling it is for me to see children become excited about books. To watch them pick out books about things they care about, to hear them chatter on about what they’ve learned, to see their confidence in themselves grow and flourish.

 

As an academic coach and a teacher in private and public schools, I have worked for 21 years to help kids develop the critical literacy skills they need to be successful in school. At every level – elementary, middle and high school – I have seen how a love of reading lays the foundation to support lifelong learning.

 

But in some homes, books are scarce. While the average U.S. family owns 13 books for each child, there are neighborhoods where there is only one book per 300 children. The schools in those neighborhoods lack funding and space for their own libraries. Public libraries face funding cuts and the families who live nearby may not have reliable transportation to take kidsthere to borrow books.

 

I decided to bring the books directly to the children who need them. 

 

In 2020 I got a trailer and remade it into the Beloved Books Bookmobile with shelves filled with a carefully curated selection of brand-new books. In 2020 I began driving to Dunaire Elementary School and, with the permission of the school’s leadership, welcomed aboard their students. Since then, more than 2,000 books have been checked out.

 

It’s especially important that the bookmobile is available during the summer, when children tend to forget some of their academic skills. One study published in the American Educational Research Journal showed a 39 percent loss in the gains they made over the school year while on summer break, as measured by the test scores of almost 18 million children over five summers from first to sixth grade.

 

As an educator, I can cite all the statistics about the importance of developing the critical literacy skills that children need to be successful in school. Learning to read by the end of third grade is a strong predictor of a student’s future academic achievement, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The American Academy of Pediatrics says reading with a parent or caregiver can even buffer the impact of adverse or traumatic childhood experiences. 

 

Don’t get me wrong. The research is important. But it doesn’t capture the excitement of a kid skipping up to the Beloved Books Bookmobile to tell me how much she loved the last book she checked out or the growing confidence of a student who’s feeling better about his reading skills. 

 

Books are transformational in so many ways. Not only do they promote brain development, improve language and listening skills, help children develop empathy and patience. Stories transport them to places they have never experienced, enhancing their understanding of the world. Reading empowers them to dream bigger. I believe that books truly liberate children.