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.

We started My Own Book two years ago. We solicit book/money donations from local businesses, publishers,clubs, and individuals. We set up visits at less fortunate K-3rd grade classrooms and read the children a book. Often team members act out the story to gales of laughter. Next we tell them about the public library and finally we lay out a selection of brand new books and let each child select their own book to take home. We add a book plate with the child's name on it so that the child feels pride in ownership. We hosted a Share the Joy of Reading Coast to Coast event on 9/27/08. We had teens, librarians, fire and police and Mother Goose read and give away books to less fortunate children in every state from California to Rhode Island. Next we are hosting Family Reading Nights at a local elementary school and a Reading is Sweet event where local clubs and businesses will be building gingerbread houses to display at the library and then auctioned off to buy books. We are also having a big holiday reading and book giveaway at a local school. We've partnered with the local Hi 4-H Club (I'm the teen leader for the group) to host a craft fair for the children the same night to ensure a big crowd. We won $10,000 in the Best Buy @ 15 Challenge. We declared February National Share the Love of Reading Month. We encouraged every teen/adult to buy their favorite book for a child and read it to them, and give them the book. If anyone knows of children without books we're happy to send books and bookplates to them. Just let us know!

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 26,500 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.

Host a book drive. Volunteer to read. Start a My Own Book chapter in your town. We can give you instructions on how plus supply you with books and bookplates. Check out our website at myownbook.net