Book Harvest

Program Overview

Book Harvest is internationally recognized for its work to transform children's literacy. Since 2011, Book Harvest has provided over two million books to families in North Carolina, ensuring that parents have the tools and power to ignite and strengthen their children's literacy. With programs that are grounded in evidence, Book Harvest believes that literacy starts at birth, in the home, powered by parents, and nourished with books.

Cost Info

Student and Volunteer Success Stories

Beautiful Sage and her mother Ashley live in a distressed neighborhood in Durham. Poverty in her census tract is 44.9%; despite working two jobs, Ashley has a tough time bringing in enough money to keep food on the table. Day-to-day life is stressful. Sage may have the potential to be the next Maya Angelou or the next Sally Ride – but she was just as likely to be a casualty of a system where the odds are stacked overwhelmingly against her, stuck in a cycle of stalled education and financial vulnerability just like her mom. Her vast potential was in danger of being eclipsed by the ravages of deprivation.

But Sage and Ashley may defy the odds because of Book Harvest's Book Babies program, one simple light-touch intervention in their lives. Every six months Meytal Barak has showed up on their porch bearing a basket brimming with 10 new board books. Ashley invites Meytal in, and for the next hour, Meytal shares the books, modeling how to use them to spark language development and early literacy skills.

Even though Ashley, who never finished high school, may be an insecure reader herself, she has seen from Meytal's warmth and example that it is not necessary to read the words, that just describing the pictures in the books makes them a powerful tool to help her daughter have the best start possible. Over the years, every session ends with hugs and laughter; Meytal has left the books for Sage and her mom to keep for their very own.

This August, Sage strode into her local public school, ready to take kindergarten by storm. With five years of Book Babies behind her, she is a student ready to read and ready to learn! Here's what Ashley just wrote to us about her first couple of months at school:

"Sage so far is doing very good in kindergarten. The teachers all love her and tell me how bright she is. Book Harvest's Book Babies played a major role in getting her ready for school. She has a head start because of what the program has helped us work with her on from infancy.

Book Babies has helped me by being that big sister shoulder to lean on sometimes when I needed a few moments to vent. The home visits help a lot. We shared conversations on our families good or bad, work lives, just everyday life stuff. I think having Book Babies helped keep me focused on my baby learning, not just on trying to make a good living for her.