There is universal agreement that literacy is key to success in school, at work and in life. Educators also tell us that kids who read at home and who read for fun and pleasure do better at school.

Yet, too many children still struggle with basic literacy skills, particularly in our city’s poorest neighborhoods. Most of these kids have no books at home. Many have no reading role models. Some are second language learners. Whatever the reason, the result is the same: poor reading scores and the resulting compromises in other life skills.

Book Worm Angels changes these dynamics.

Our mission is to increase literacy among our city’s most at risk kids by helping them develop regular, out-of-school reading habits. We do this by providing free books to stock in-classroom lending libraries for grades K-8. Our books are fun, recreational reading books and we require that participating schools make them available for at-home use with no penalty for loss or damage.

We provide a Teacher’s Manual with tips and incentives for at-home reading, and involve parents and caregivers by asking them to turn off the TV and spend 30 minutes of uninterrupted time each evening reading with their children.

To reach the neediest kids and schools, we target the bottom quartile of public elementary schools where at least half or more of students read below grade level. Once a school agrees to be in our program, we provide 7-10 books per student, at no charge, for in-classroom libraries. For an average school with 25 classrooms, that’s 6,000 books. Every year thereafter, we replenish with additional books. Using our example, above, a school that receives 6,000 books to start the program will get 1,200 books every year thereafter to refresh.

We get our books by helping organize year-round book drives for gently-used, children’s books and by partnering with publishers and other organizations for new books. To date, we’ve collected over 1.4 million books, serve 155 Chicago Public Elementary Schools and 82,000 students.