Books

How You Can #GiveaBook To Children In Need

by K.W. Colyard

Want to do something nice for a family in your community this holiday season? I know how you can #GiveaBook to children in need, for free, thanks to Penguin Random House's third-annual charity book program.

Since 2014, Penguin Random House "[has] donated more than 85,000 books to children in need across the country through" its #GiveaBook program. This year, the publisher wants to donate an additional 50,000 books through a partnership with First Book, a nonprofit devoted to "equal access to quality education for children in need."

All across the globe, having books in the home improves students' test grades, regardless of their economic status or ethnic heritage. The benefits are greater for those who come from marginalized and at-risk communities, however, and that's what makes programs like #GiveaBook so important.

Recent Pew Research Center surveys found that 40 percent of adults who did not attend college had not read a book in the last 12 months, compared to 26 percent of adults overall. Additionally, 19 percent of U.S. adults told Pew they had not used a library or bookmobile in the last year, and "men, Hispanics, older adults, those living in households earning less than $30,000 and those who have no more than a high school diploma or did not graduate from high school are the most likely to report they have never been to a public library."

Those numbers are saddening, but you can do your part to help kids in your community get books of their very own, even if you don't have the money to purchase books yourself. Visit Penguin Random House's #GiveaBook page and enter your name, email address, and zip code, and five of those 50,000 books will be given "to educators serving children in need in your home state." Win-win-win.

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