Community

By Amanda Shaver, Community Partner Manager Attracted by BookSpring’s 20 Books by 2020 campaign, particularly the statistic about children with 20 or more books in their homes going on to achieve three more years of schooling than children in bookless homes, the Boy Scouts of Pack 20, Den 4 decided ...

By Amanda Shaver, Community Partner Manager Wayne Glander, or “Justin Beaver” as he is known to the students he encounters while driving around town delivering books, has been instrumental to BookSpring’s literacy efforts in the community for the past ten years. Wayne has done everything from helping with the initial ...

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 ...

By: Luke Arney, BookSpringGo volunteer My journey with BookSpring started over a year ago while I was in my freshman year at Lake Travis High School. During my freshman year in AP Human Geography my teacher, Mrs. Browning, set forth a project that would follow one of the seventeen UN ...

Birds Barbershop held a book drive in August, during the back to school rush, at each of their 8 Austin and 1 Houston locations. The Birds for Bookworms book drive benefited the ReBook program with hundreds of books. Birds Barbershop is a philanthropic leader in the Austin community. They are always ...

BookSpring’s van has been hitting the streets throughout Central Texas to get resources needed to children and families through partners already serving them. Tools that will ensure they read and succeed together. With thousands of books constantly flowing in and out of our office, we are keeping home libraries growing ...

By: Gauri Dhruva, BookSpringGo Volunteer  Signing up to be a Community Reader through BookSpring was a unique experience and I am very glad I got to be a part of it. I will admit that in the beginning, I was a bit hesitant to volunteer because this was an activity ...

Literacy First is an esteemed AmeriCorps program in the Austin community. Since 1994, Literacy First has worked to ensure that children in Central Texas are successful readers before third grade. Not only do these AmeriCorps members provide intensive one-on-one and small group literacy intervention at various Title 1 schools, they ...

Manor Independent School District (MISD) has been celebrating literacy all summer long! Children and families can explore reading aboard the "Reading on the Go" Manor book bus. The traveling book bus has been making stops around Manor helping families build their book collection one book at a time. Through a ...

BookSpring has just completed preliminary evaluation of the pilot Read For Success program in Central Texas and the results are very encouraging. The program is designed to reduce the summer slide, a phenomenon where children’s academic skills, including reading, decline during the academic year break. According to Reading Is Fundamental ...

BookSpring presented BookSpring into Summer: A Celebration of Readers on May 12, 2017. Free Live Performance from the Beloved Biscuit Brothers! A live performance from Austin's favorite children's performers The Biscuit Brothers was enjoyed by all. The Biscuit Brothers is a mission driven PBS children’s educational television series. The two-time Emmy ...

Each year on April 30, El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day)—also referred to as Día!—countless libraries and community organizations celebrate the importance of diversity and literacy for all children. Embracing a child’s home language and culture contributes to their cognitive, social emotional, and literacy ...

BookSpring hosted its annual luncheon on April 21 at the Westwood Country Club. Its charming early 1900’s architecture, hand painted ceiling, and Mexican title floors set the ideal ambience for the 119 BookSpring guests. Total amount raised was nearly $20,000, representing over 8000 new children's books for Central Texas families ...

Greater Austin Area My Brother’s Keeper (GAAMBK) is an offshoot of the national movement My Brother’s Keeper. The initiative, created by former President Barack Obama, addresses the challenges that young men of color face. The GAAMBK initiative kicked off on March 8, 2015 at SXSWedu. This initiative is a collaboration among city, county, ...

BookSpring’s goal is to help each child we serve have 20 books in their home by the year 2020. We would like to highlight one of our partners that is already actively providing books to their children to make sure this goal is met. We are so thrilled to partner ...

A group of local authors are lending their support to BookSpring's efforts.  They will be the featured guests at our Benefit Luncheon in April 21 at the Westwood Country Club.  Learn more about these fascinating writers right here in our own backyard. Bethany Hegedus’ books include the award-winning Grandfather Gandhi ...

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 ...

There is something almost magical about encountering a book you simply cannot put down. A book that leaves you longing for answers  of what lies ahead for the hero or heroine of the story. A book with such an enthralling story that your way of viewing the world is completely ...

By Amanda Shaver On Fridays this summer, BookSpring collaborated with the Housing Authority for the City of Austin (HACA) to provide books and story times for the children who attended the HACA/Capital Area Food Bank’s summer meal program. Spending this time with the kids ended up being one of the ...

"Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different." — Steven Pinker A house without books is like a room without windows. — Heinrich Mann ...