Book Harvest provides literacy programs including Book Babies to children in Durham, NC. Book Babies gives books and literacy coaching to families starting from birth through age 5. The program aims to help prepare children for kindergarten success by giving them books and teaching parents techniques to develop their children's literacy skills at home. Book Babies has shown positive impacts, with families reporting benefits like increased reading, library visits, and brain development.

1. Book Harvest provides books to children who need them and engages families and communities
to promote children's lifelong literacy and academic success. Based in Durham, NC, our
evide~ce-informed programs are rooted in the belief that books are essential to children's healthy
development and well-being and that all children deserve to grow up in book-rich homes.
book harvest
THE CHALLENGE
IALACK OF BOOKS
AND SUPPORT
for developing reading routines at home -
starting at birth - sets young children up
to start kindergarten without the literacy
ski lls needed to succeed in school.
80% of a child's brain develops
in the first three years of life.*
*National Research Council and Institute of Medicine; From
Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood
Development. Washington, 0.C., National Academy Press, 2000.
...---; .-;-...
BOOK BABIES
l The power of PARENTS to place their children
on a path to kindergarten readiness.
OUR RESPONSE
w---BOOK BABIES PROVIDES
PARENTS WITH THE BOOKS
AND SUPPORT
they need to help their children's early
literacy blossom. Over five years, starting at
birth, we visit families to deliver new books and
to provide literacy coaching, giving parents the
tools they need to be their baby's brain builder.
Between home visits, we engage parents
with a host of supports, including reading tips
by text, parent book clubs, service on parent
leadership teams, and family celebrations.
OUR BOOK BABIES PARTNERS INCLUDE:
OUR IMPACT
~In 2016,
Book Babies provided
347 HOME VISITS
AND
7,234 BOOKS
to 205 families
with Medicaid-eligible
newborns, babies, and young
children in Durham.
Durham Connects IDurham County Library I Exchange Family Center I Lincoln Community
Health Center
I Duke University _Cente: I Welcome Baby
for Child and Family Polley
Book Babies is part of an innovative and evidence-informed continuum of programs which provide literacy support and book ownership for children and their families.
To earn more about this and other initiatives of Book Harvest, please contact Ginger Young, Founder and Executive Director, at ginger@bookharvestnc.org or 919.428.0511.
BOOK HARVEST, 2501 UNIVERSITY DRIVE, DURHAM, NC 27707 • 252.497.BOOK • WWW.BOOKHARVESTNC.ORG

2. What makes Book Babies innovative?
Parents are the key.
The program's success lies with parents. By reading to their children for 15 minutes every day, they expose
their children to a million words a year and nourish their brains for a lifetime of literacy. We provide tools
(books), information, and support, but the parents are the agents of change. As they engage with their
children every day during the first five years, they put their children on a path to school readiness.
Our approach is personal.
Every year from the baby's birth to age five, Book Harvest staff make home visits to enrolled families;
during these visits, we provide lots of new books to each enrolled Medicaid-eligible family. Each book
delivery visit doubles as a literacy coaching session; at kitchen tables and on living room sofas, Book Babies
team members model reading with the child and discuss early literacy skills with parents.
Our strategy is direct and multifaceted.
We start at birth, laying the foundation for literacy in the earliest days, when brain development is at its
most potent. By the time a child graduates from Book Babies and starts kindergarten, s/he will own at least
120 new books and will have received at least 12 literacy coaching home visits. We supplement the visits
with a robust array of additional supports, including bi-weekly reading and developmental tips via text
message to parents, family gatherings at the Durham County Library, parent book clubs and advisory
groups, and help with applying for a library card and finding high-quality pre-K.
We are committed to finding what works.
Will Book Babies participants enter school ready to learn? Will they have higher emergent literacy skills and
a measurable advantage for future school success? Could this program confer lifelong benefits? We aim to
find out: in 2017, we are partnering with Duke University's Center for Child and Family Policy to evaluate
the longitudinal impact of the Book Babies program on the literacy skills and school readiness of infants
born in 2017 and 2018, assessing their literacy development alongside two control groups over five years.
Our goal is ambitious-and achievable.
Our unique combination of providing home visits and books equips parents to be the change agents for
their children during the critically important preschool years. Book Babies parents, with our support, can
help ensure that their children's school readiness is on par with their higher-income peers. The result? A
lifetime of benefits for all children, as income-based achievement gaps that hold us all back are narrowed
and, finally, closed.
What are parents saying about Book Babies?
"I have been able to see the huge difference in how my kids are interested in reading since before when I
did not have books. My oldest daughter did not like reading, but when my other three kids began to read
different types of books, she became interested in them. For me, this has been a huge, huge help."
"My baby gets access to plenty of books now. I believe as I read to him and as one of your members visits
twice a year, his brain development will be ahead of babies who do not use the same resources."
"Each time, you teach me something different that motivates us more."
"We visit the library more often now; she reads about 3 books a week now!"
"We share as a family and read every day to our children at least 15 minutes a day."