End Book Deserts

A Texas-based program, BookSpring launches children into a world of reading.

Author Matt de la Pena - This episode features Newbery award winner Matt de la Pena, who talks about growing up as a non-reader, how books changed his lives, and how his current work aims to increase book culture.

This episode features two programs - Cantu's Books and Liberation Library - who provide book access to incarcerated youth.

Meghan Cox Gurdon, author of The Enchanted Hour, shares the impact of book deserts, how reading aloud transforms child-parent relationships, and how technology has impacted book deserts.

One child enters foster care every two seconds; this episode features Ticket to Dream, and their work to overcome book deserts for children in the foster care system.

Find out how Wash and Learn and Library Laundromat League convert laundromats into literacy hubs.

Literacy leaders Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp talk about the power of book ownership.

The Dollywood Foundation and its Imagination Library works well past 9 to 5 to distribute 16 million books a year by mail to children in Tennessee and beyond.

With a network of over 450,000 educators, First Book is a power player in the movement to end book deserts.

Award winning author Jason Reynolds shares his work to provide book access. 

A grassroots effort to spread the love of reading, there are 90.000 little free libraries around the world.

2000 Libros provides books to undocumented migrant children in detention centers, those in shelters separated from their families, and the children waiting to be reunited with families.

A New Jersey teacher ends book deserts by through book drives linking high income schools to low income schools.

United Through Reading connects deployed military families to their children back home through video reading.

Project Lit is a nationwide student-teacher book club, aiming to increase reading across the nation.

2 out of 3 low-income children have no books of their own. Bernie's Book Bank, Chicago's largest provider of quality children's books, is changing that with 12 books per year for 12 years.

This episode focuses on a Georgia-based program, who ensures that children of incarcerated parents still have bedtime stories.

Find out how a major airline strives to end book deserts with book vending machines.

Find out how a New York non-profit has distributed over 1 million books to 500 schools and organizations in less than a decade.

Our podcast kicks off with research around book deserts from Dr. Susan Neuman. Reading researcher and professor at New York University, Dr. Neuman defines 'book desert' and presents staggering research on the impact of book deserts.