My Own Book

Vital Stats

Kyle and Brady b

Fairfield, CA

people helped36900
People Doing It 425

The Problem

We heard on the radio that most low income children do not have any books of their own. We researched this and found that low income children have zero to two books compared to two hundred books for kids that are better off. We know how great it is to have books available to read and enjoy so we decided to start a program to read to children and let them choose their own book.

Plan of Action

We talked with lots of different people, tried lots of different things and came up with the program. We learned we needed to target K-third grade kids because after that it is too hard to engage the children in reading. We learned the importance of reading aloud to kids in a loud voice and engaging them in the story. We've made mistakes and learned from them. We finetuned the project enough so that it can now be executed on a national level. We have given out more than 27,500 books so far- that is over $100,000 worth of books! Children love to get the books and hear the story plus our teen volunteers learn leadership and the importance of reaching out to less fortunate children.

For More Info

www.myownbook.net

Project Updates

This spring our school district decided to close four schools. This was a sudden decision and very hard on the children and their families that attend the schools. My Own Book had visited the closing schools in the past. Each of the schools were located in the lower income areas of our downtown. We decided to take action to help make the best of a bad situation. We were able to buy and distribute through special assemblies a copy of Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss to every child at each of the closing schools. This was a great experience not only for the children who got a copy of the book but also for our volunteers. We are happy to be spreading the joy of reading.

Great news! Last week we visited Bransford Elementary and gave out our 20,000th book. It was exciting. The kids at this school are building home libraries since they have been a part of our program since its' inception
We'd love to send teens books/bookplates if anyone wants to visit less fortunate kids, read, and pass out books. Let us know if you are interested! kyleandbrady@myownbook.net

My Own Book teens from Armijo hit the road on Read Across America Day to share the joy of reading. A huge crowd of us visited David Weir Elementary School- we read and acted out stories, showed off our library cards, and then let the children pick a book of their very own. We used our Do Something Club grant funds to help us pay for the 400 + books we distributed to less fortunate children. It was a great event!

Education