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Books from Birth

Igniting Literacy for Every Newborn

Books from Birth partners with hospitals systems and home visiting organizations to send newborns home with a starter home library of 10 new board books. Books from Birth is a core component of Book Harvest's Early Literacy System of Care.

What is Books from Birth?

Book Harvest’s Books from Birth program partners with hospitals to send newborns home with a starter home library of 10 brand new board books.

 

Healthcare providers provide new parents with this home library packaged in a Books from Birth box that includes a onesie and additional resources that help families foster early language and reading routines from a baby's first days.

 

Books from Birth lays the foundation for early relational health and optimal brain development in the first five years -- a precondition for school readiness, academic success, and a healthy childhood that leads to a lifetime of flourishing.

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Books from Birth launched in March 2023.

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Why Books from Birth Matters

  • Literacy support from a family's medical team increases active engagement in literacy activities at home, including reading aloud several times every week and reporting that reading together is a favorite shared family activity. [1]
     

  • Books in the home are the single biggest predictor of a child’s reading proficiency and long-term success in school [2], and regular reading from birth improves infant language scores by as early as 9 months of age. [3]
     

  • A guiding principle of the American Academy of Pediatrics is that literacy begins at birth in the home, with parents. [4]

Que con los libros le ayudo a mis hijos a fomentar mas la lectura y aprenden a hablar con mas claridad... lo mas importante es que desde pequeños les enseño a tener mas interes en leer libros. That with books I help my children to promote reading more and they learn to speak more clearly...the most important thing is that from a young age I teach them to be more interested in reading books.

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Joining the Books from Birth Network

Hospitals that are eligible to join Book Harvest's Books from Birth network commit to:
 

  • participating in the program for a minimum of 12 months;

  • working with Book Harvest to secure funding to reach every newborn in the hospital;

  • providing all families who give birth in the hospital with a Books from Birth box containing 10 new specially-curated books and additional literacy resources;

  • coordinating the attendance of relevant staff at learning sessions with Book Harvest;

  • assigning a hospital staff person to conduct monthly check-ins with Book Harvest;

  • and providing monthly reporting of data.

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Interested in learning more about Books from Birth? Contact Jeff Quinn, COO, at jeff@bookharvest.org.

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Books from Birth Locations

Thank you to our Books from Birth funders: Stacey and Mark Yusko, Blue Cross Blue Shield NC, Duke Office of Durham and Community Affairs, NC Office of State Budget and Management (NC OSBM)

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