Books in a Box
Providing books to the children of incarcerated parents.
Books in a Box delivers home libraries of books directly to children who are experiencing the incarceration of a parent.
What is Books in a Box?
Books in a Box delivers home libraries of books directly to children who are experiencing the incarceration of a parent. Book Harvest partners with Our Children's Place, correctional facilities and community organizations to enroll children, from birth to age ten, and their families in the program. This book provision program exemplifies Book Harvest's commitment to meet families where they are with an abundance of books.
Why Books in a Box Matters
• There are more than 17,000 children with an incarcerated parent in North Carolina. In 2007, there were 1.7 million children with an incarcerated parent nationally. [1]
• 1 in 14 children in North Carolina will experience parental incarceration. [2]
• Books in the home are the single biggest predictor of a child's reading proficiency and long term success in school. [3]
How Books in a Box Works
Book Harvest mails a total of 20 free new books to children ages birth to ten whose families are experiencing the effects of incarceration. Upon successful enrollment, we send an initial box of 10 age-appropriate books; and we send another box of 10 books six months later.
We encourage the incarcerated caregiver to write a card to their child which will be included in the box and then share the list of titles we mailed with the caregiver who is incarcerated.
