By Lorena Koppel: Volunteer I had an awesome time representing BookSpring this weekend at the Community Connections Resource Fair, sponsored by Austin Energy! The fair featured over one hundred vendors and representatives of businesses and organizations, and showcased local artisans and performers. With BookSpring, I was able to spread awareness about the importance of child […]
Summer Reading Enriches Future Academic Success
It is no mystery that summer break can result in an exponential loss of academic skills or the “summer slide.” Research conducted by John Hopkins’ sociology Professor Karl Alexander shows that low-income youth suffer significantly from a loss of academic skills over the summertime. The losses pile up contributing to an achievement gap in their […]
Partner Spotlight: CommUnityCare North Central
It is never too early to share books with your baby. Reading to babies immerses them in sounds, rhythms, and rhymes building language and early literacy skills. Books are also a crucial bonding tool for caregivers and their newborns. Through the Rx programs, we partner with healthcare providers to prescribe a book and a dose […]
Librarians are Superheroes
Dobie Pre-Kindergarten Librarian Alexia Haywood, in front of her newest bulletin board, holding two of her favorite books. By: Kara Hooper/ Guest Blogger “Oh, I am so glad that you are here,” said Dobie Pre-Kindergarten Center librarian Alexia Haywood in a chipper, enthusiastic voice. “I can’t wait to get started on the Battle of the […]
Sharing a Vision of 20 Books in All Homes
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director We here are BookSpring have announced a big audacious goal: to get 20 high quality children’s books in every Central Texas home by 2020. This vision is being driven by social science research that shows a statistically significant correlation between the size of home libraries and children’s future academic […]
Volunteer Spotlight: Atlassian
Atlassian is our pick for the Volunteer Spotlight! Atlassian is an Australian enterprise software company, that specializes in products for collaboration and product development. They opened doors on their Austin location in 2014. The magnificent employees of Atlassian began their involvement with BookSpring as a sponsor for our annual Read-A-Thon. Employees even volunteered their time […]
Books for Asylum Seeking Families
This summer, BookSpring took its mission on the road and headed south toward the border of Mexico. In association with the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, we brought joy and a sense of ownership to refugee children in detention centers as well as families on their journey for asylum. With 1000 Spanish and […]
New Study on Book Gifting for Babies
By Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director The tradition of book gifting has been studied scientifically by researchers in education and healthcare for many years. Practices include bookmobiles, little free libraries, and other early literacy interventions and social programs at the regional, national, and global levels. We at BookSpring look to this work to inspire and […]
Building Early Literacy in a Digital Community
By Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director The statistics about the struggle to achieve full literacy in America are startling and alarming: 14% of Americans are illiterate, with little change over the past decade, and 21% of adults can’t read above a fifth-grade level. Numerous studies connect lack of reading skills to negative life outcomes such […]
Being with BookSpring
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director I recently passed an anniversary with BookSpring. I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to have been given the honor of carrying forward this worthy vision of creating a more literate future for all our children. Every day of each year, BookSpring has been delivering books to children […]
The Multifaceted Permanence of Books
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director My home was one of the many hit by the Texas Memorial Day floods. We are only now getting everything back in order, thanks to many helpful friends and services, particularly two burly men from Stanley Steamer and two helpful home inspectors from FEMA. The damage wasn’t major, but […]