We recently had the opportunity to speak with Lisa Holton, president of Classroom, Inc. – a nonprofit that develops literacy and leadership skills for middle school students in high-poverty communities. The organization provides support for educators and works to put students in charge of their learning. They create programs,… Read More

Almost everyone has a special story of how they met the one. You know, that one special book that made you fall in love – with not only what you were reading – but with reading, itself. Since our founding in 1992, we have distributed more than 160 million… Read More

March is Women’s History Month. This celebration of half the population became a national observation in February 1980, when President Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation and declared the week of March 8 to be “National Women’s History Week.” Throughout the country, schools celebrated the important contributions women had made in… Read More

Today’s guest blog post is by Dr. Deborah Leong, Executive Director of Tools of the Mind, and coauthor with Dr. Elena Bodrova of “Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education”, and Barbara Wilder-Smith, Director of Content Development at Tools of the Mind. Tools of the Mind… Read More

Like many First Book stories, this one begins with a successful partnership. A partnership that, for many years, has helped First Book raise the bar for kids in need with new, quality books both at school and at home. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and First Book have… Read More

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically…Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education. – Martin Luther King Jr., “The Purpose of Education”, 1947 Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and even now, all across the… Read More

At McBee Elementary School in Austin, TX teachers are always looking for ways to help students share ideas and connect. That is especially true for librarian Heather Stephens. She sees hundreds of students from different grade levels, all with various interests, on a daily basis. For the 2nd grade,… Read More

In November, First Book and its partners the American Federation of Teachers and the Albert Shanker Institute presented the Citizen Power Project; a challenge to educators nationwide to identify, plan, and implement a civic engagement project important to their students, school or community. Fifteen projects received grants to help… Read More

As the year comes to a close, we here at First Book like to reflect on the things we did, the people we met, and (most of all) the books we read. Here are a few of our favorite children’s books that were published in 2016!   Pre-K –K (Ages… Read More

In October, First Book teamed up with Operation Warm and the Chicago Housing Authority to bring new books and new coats to kids living in Chicago’s public housing. The event promised to bring together organizations like First Book and individuals who aim to improve the lives of children and… Read More