Please Read To Me, the Children's Book

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The book you just read started out as a letter to my granddaughter the day her son was born. Somehow, that letter morphed into a poem which be- came this book. His birth was also the birth of the Book Fairy Pantry Project (BFPP) because I discovered this information about literacy in America: 

• One child in four in the U.S. does not learn to read. 

• The prime indicators that children will be ready to learn to read when they arrive at school are whether they have been read to daily from birth and have age-appropriate children’s books in their home. 

• Two-thirds of the 15.5 million children living in poverty in the U.S. do not have even one book to call their own. 

• There is no shortage of gently used, quality books in this country, only a shortage of redistribution of these books. 

I could not bear the thought of 10 million children going to bed every night with no bedtime story because they had no books, so I decided to do some- thing about it. 

Created as a grassroots literacy project, the Book Fairy Pantry Project collects and distributes gently-read children’s books, donated by children who have outgrown them, to food pantries, WIC programs, Early Head Start, Head Start, and community baby showers. Thanks to two generous grants from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, the board book version of Please Read To Me was donated to thousands of expectant parents in Maine to read to their babies in utero and at birth. 

Illiteracy is a disease of poverty. The way out of poverty is literacy. The currency of literacy is children’s books. 

The first of two of our children’s greatest needs is to be securely bonded to at least one other human being. The second is to be able to read. In to- day’s culture, a child’s future standard of living and quality of life will depend on their ability to read. When parents and family members read aloud to children they strengthen their bond with the child and build the child’s foundation for learning to read. Books in the home support both of those vital needs. 

One of Book Fairy Pantry Project’s most exciting early literacy projects is our “story bags”. A story bag is a one-gallon zip bag with a book and match- ing Beanie or toy. For children who have not owned books, and who have not been read to, books hold no magic. Thus, we must supply the magic. “Story bags” create book magic. The BFPP story bags are far more than “cute”; they are an early-literacy intervention! Young children who have had very little read-aloud time, but a lot of screen time, usually have underdeveloped imaginations. The stuffie or toy that matches the cover of the book in a story bag bridges that imagination “gap” sufficiently to bring alive the magic of books. 

In the years since I founded the Book Fairy Pantry Project, I have learned that there is no shortage of available free books for all children to have all the books they need. The shortage is of book fairies to collect and distribute them. If all children are to own and love books then every community needs at least one Book Fairy. I am excited to say that many people, who have book fairy hearts, have answered the call to help make sure all children in their community have books. . . . but we need so many more! Becoming a book fairy for your community is high level social justice work. 

Please visit our website at BookFairyPantryProject.org to learn about how you can make a difference. Materials to help you start your own local BFPP are available on the website for free. You can also subscribe to the Pam Leo news- letter and join other Book Fairies in our Mighty Networks private discussion and support group. Please, also consider making a financial donation to sup- port our work. We cannot do this vital work without your help! Please join us! 

Pam Leo, aka Book Fairy of Maine
Founder, Book Fairy Pantry Project
Author, Connection Parenting and Please Read To Me 

Pam Leo, founder of the Book Fairy Pantry Project, joined the Kindred fellows and staff in summer 2021 to talk about her brand of Kindred Activism: Community ARTivism. Pam shared her insights into working tirelessly in her community for over three decades as a bonding and literacy advocate in prisons, parenting classes, and through family literacy projects. Pam is also the author of the classic conscious parenting book, Connection Parenting, which celebrated its 15 anniversary in 2021.

In this video, Pam reads the board book version of Please Read To Me, to the fellows and staff. (We curled up with our jammies and blankets for this nourishing treat!)

You can purchase a soft and hard cover of the book in November 2024.