Books for Every Child,
Support for Every Parent,
Literacy for Every Community

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Books Harvested by Children to Date

The-Opportunity

The Opportunity

Eighty percent of brain development happens in the first three years of life. Imagine the possibilities for all children when they grow up surrounded by books and stories, words and ideas — starting at birth.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

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Our-Response

Our Response

We nourish young brains by filling their worlds with an abundance of books. And we partner with parents from the time their children are born, to ensure that parents are equipped with everything they need to help their children thrive.

It’s a response that fuels imagination
and sparks joy.

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Our-Impact

Our Impact

More than 1,900,000 Book Harvest books have been harvested by children and families since 2011. Books: the catalyst for cozy bedtime stories and robust vocabularies, the fuel for empathy, curiosity, and creativity – and, most of all, the foundation for a lifelong love of reading.

It’s an impact that is transforming lives, child by child and book by book.

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Our Latest News

Dream Big 2023

On January 16, 2023, Book Harvest hosted its 12th Annual Dream Big Book Drive in celebration of MLK Day. Over 2,000 community members, 175 volunteers, and 22 partners attended the event at the Golden Belt Campus in Durham. Plus, more than 125 cars drove through over 3 hours to drop off donated books! Visitors enjoyed Paperhand Puppet Intervention, popcorn from Mad Popper, the Bouncing Bulldogs -- and they selected 1,653 children's books to keep forever to build their home libraries.

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Save the Date! Block Party 2023

Book Harvest’s annual Summer Block Party will once again fill the concourse of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park -- this time on Saturday, July 22, 2023 from 1 to 4 p.m. The free, outdoor, community-wide event will be a joyful celebration of books and National Summer Learning Week! The afternoon will be action-packed, featuring fun-filled family activities and entertainment, and an abundance of free, culturally inclusive children’s books for every child – from infants to high schoolers – to choose their very own books to take home and keep forever!

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Read Our 2022 Summer Book Report

The summer of 2022 was filled with the joy of books! In this Summer Book Report, you will find a summary of our book access work from May through August 2022, during which kids harvested 132,699 books!

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Read the Blog

Read our latest blog posts, Words to Live By segment, and newsletters!

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Journal of Early Childhood Literacy Publishes Findings of Book Babies Program

The Journal of Early Childhood Literacy just published "In their own words: Parents’ voices about a book-provision program", co-authored by Meytal Barak, Book Harvest's Director of Early Literacy, and Dr. Cristina Gillanders, Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver.

Drawing on research conducted by the Book Babies literacy coaches, this article describes the integral role parents play in children's development, and the importance of Book Babies literacy coaches working alongside families in culturally responsive ways to create sustainable in-home literacy practices.

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Book Harvest Durham Hires Executive Director

Tabitha Blackwell has been named Executive Director of Book Harvest Durham effective May 25, 2022. Tabitha is responsible for all of Book Harvest’s operations and programming in Durham, the organization’s home community. Her particular focus is on scaling the reach and scope of existing programs in Durham and piloting new and innovative initiatives that provide books and literacy supports to Durham’s children and families.

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