Updates

GE Aviation of Austin hosted their first volunteer event with BookSpring. Over 70 employees helped build literacy through the community on Tuesday, December 20. “We have been in Austin (as GE) for a little over 4 years. This is the first time we've done a volunteer event,” said GE Flight ...

BookSpring and the Junior League of Austin (JLA) teamed up for another successful Coats for Kids' community fair book distribution on Saturday, December 10 at the Palmer Events Center. Junior League members collected over 10,000 books over the course of the year. 8,000 books were distributed in Austin, and the ...

BookSpring's Clinics & Health Partner Manager Cynthia Ivey was elected as Vice President of Community Partnerships of The Community Health Champions Alumni Leadership Committee for 2017. Community Health Champions is an initiative by Central Health to bring together diverse and informed community members from across Travis County to learn about, discuss, ...

Our communities are strongest when we build them in ways that ensure the well being of all residents. BookSpring meets our clients where they are, through our community partners. BookSpring trainers are certified through the Texas Trainer Registry (Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System). They equip childcare professionals, teachers, parent ...

Tis the season for giving, giving what you can to make a difference! Austin University Area Rotary Club members give the most precious gift of all, their time. Every Tuesday and Thursday Rotarians volunteer at JJ Pickle Elementary, a title one school located in Northeast Austin. They work closely with ...

by Mateo Ibranji A new study based on big educational data found that after many years of efforts by numerous literacy programs, we are collectively as a nation making progress in fighting child inequality in the classroom. The report which was written by multiple professors of education and social work, ...

By Nancy Kelly This year, approximately 1,200 Junior League of Austin members will complete a staggering 100,000 volunteer hours for over 30 local community projects. One of those programs is BookSpring. I am one of the ten JLA members who are lucky enough to be spending their year working with ...

By Natalie Kelly Be The Change: A Grandfather Gandhi Story is the recently published follow up to 2014’s Grandfather Gandhi. Local author, Bethany Hegedus and Arun Gandhi, Mohandas K. Gandhi’s grandson, wrote both books. Bethany Hegedus will be speaking and signing copies of her book this weekend at BookPeople. It ...

By Haley Justiz Ever since I was a little girl, I have always spent my summers volunteering. Throughout the years, I’d hop from organization to organization, until I finally found BookSpring: it was love at first, well, book donation! A little something about me: I love to read. And that ...

By Jill Gonzalez I remember wonderful hours spent under a makeshift tent of blankets and our picnic table under the shade of a beautiful oak tree reading the books I had found at the library. That tent was a magical place, only to be ventured out of for Kool-Aid, or ...

By Lili Cantu At BookSpring, we have spent some of our summer getting some continuing education and preparing to offer continuing education courses for other organizations. I was privileged to present a session along with my colleague, Jill Gonzalez, at the 6th annual Texas School Ready Institute, titled Moms, Dads, ...

by Mariela Rodriguez Here at BookSpring we are always eager to learn about the latest reading strategies and to uncover newly released children’s books! On Thursday, July 21, the Reading Summit for Educators was held by Scholastic in San Antonio, Texas. Two staff members and I hit the road that day ...

by Morgan Brown  I wanted to share one of my recent experiences as a BookSpring volunteer! A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to volunteer with Ms. Collier at the Galindo Elementary School Literacy Night. The theme of the event was based around the book, If You Give a ...

por Cynthia Ivey The English translation can be found here. Todos sabemos que aprender a leer es fundamental para combatir el analfabetismo.  Hay muchos libros en inglés.  Pero ¿qué si inglés no es su primer idioma, o un idioma que usted no habla?  Esto no es un problema nuevo.  La ...

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 ...

Introducing a child to reading is one of the most rewarding events anyone can experience, and people like Emma DeBoer, a former BookSpring employee and now a librarian, strive for these gratifying moments. Ms. Emma DeBoer sat down with BookSpring and revealed some of the key moments and ideas that ...

by Sophia Toprac BookSpring would like to take some time to shed light on the topic of reading disabilities. About 85% of students with learning disabilities have been described as reading disabled. The process of learning is made up of multiple steps, all of which seem completely simple and are ...

Can you imagine not having any books? Or growing up without every opportunity to read and succeed? Dana grew up in a house with no books, newspapers, magazines, or even a bookshelf. Her family was very poor and moved so often that she went to five different kindergartens. By second ...

by Joan Wabschall, RN, MS, BookSpring Champion. A friend of mine sent me a book in the mail recently and hoped that I would like it. I did not: I loved it! It is “The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared” by Alice Ozma. I couldn't help ...

by Christy Anderson It makes sense: the more a child reads, the better a child gets at reading. But studies show that being read to is just as critical to a child’s growing literacy and language development, even in very young children, including infants and toddlers. Even Children Who Can’t ...

by Sophia Toprac An article recently published by the New York Times that discusses recent studies that reveal the benefits of reading aloud to your child. The article points to studies done across the nation that found that the three main traits that all the most voracious young readers seems ...