Poverty prevents millions of children in the U.S. from access to the tools – books – that are crucial in building a love of reading and strong academic skills. 

• The most significant indicator of poverty is low academic achievement.
• The most signficant indicator of low academic achievement is poor literacy skills.
• The most significant indicator of poor literacy skills is having few or no books in the home.
• 61% of families in neighborhoods that do poorly in school own NO books.
• Putting books into the hands of children, and allowing them to choose and grow their collections over time, significantly impacts how much they enjoy reading and how much time they spend reading growing up.  This is a long term effect, and occurs even when there is no direct contact with families.

In the United States alone, nearly 13 million children are caught in this cycle.