
Print-to-Speech and Speech-to-Print: Mapping Early Literacy
By: Jeannine Herron, et al. In this overview, learn how early literacy benefits from both print-to-speech and speech-to-print instruction, creating connections in the brain that link new knowledge about the alphabet to what children already know and are continuously learning about words. Introduction Recently there have been many discussions among ...
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Books Beginning at Birth: A New Partnership for Birth to Age 4
Books Beginning at Birth Program for Texas Families Early childhood programs have long-lasting impacts on children, families, and broader communities. The Texas Association for the Education of Young Children (TXAEYC) and BookSpring launched the Books Beginning at Birth program to ensure more families are empowered and motivated to read together ...
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Results of 2021 Central Texas Reading Survey
The 2021 Central Texas Reading Survey provides great insight into the lives of those in our community and shows us a snapshot of what their reading habits have looked like over the past year. Now in its fifth year, this survey helps indicate areas for improvement in Central Texas and ...
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In Loving Memory of P. Clift Price
At BookSpring, we recently lost someone near and dear to our hearts, P. Clift Price. Born in 1924 in Bonham, Texas to Lucie Clift and Pinckney Bryan Price, P. Clift Price, MD was a retired Pediatrician with both private practice and public health careers, and a founding member of the University Area ...
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BookSpring Smart TV Time Raffle
Congratulations to Gail Wihelm, the lucky winner of the Smart TV Time Raffle. And a huge thanks to everyone that participated! Your support helps us provide books to the children that need them most. Raffle Description: All BookSpring Smart TV Time Raffle proceeds will help us deliver books to the ...
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Exploring the 2019 Central Texas Reading Survey
BookSpring’s 2019 Central Texas Reading Survey offers insight into the state of reading in Central Texas and early literacy efforts in our community. The survey provides valuable information about the reading habits of families in Central Texas, while raising many interesting questions about the state of reading in the region, ...
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BookSpring Partners With BookPeople
BookSpring is proud to be a partner in literacy with BookPeople. BookPeople has been the leading independent bookstore in Texas since 1970. Located in the heart of downtown, BookPeople has been voted best bookstore in Austin for over 15 years. BookPeople was voted Bookstore of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly ...
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2019 StoryBook Heroes Luncheon Raises over $100,000
250+ guests from across the business, community, and political spectrum joined us for our annual Storybook Heroes fundraising luncheon -- and made a huge six figure difference in the lives of families across our community. And we are eternally grateful to our very special guests, Dr. Art Markman and Dr ...
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Diverse Book Wish List
Do you want to contribute in a unique and meaningful way to our mission? We love to distribute books that are written by or for underrepresented people, because all children deserve the chance to see themselves reflected in the books they read. However, it costs about three times the amount ...
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Targeting Summer Slide with New Program
By Joel Gross Photos by Tyler Schmitt / The Mill Photography BookSpring is excited to announce the launch of Summer Success, a new full-scale program designed to address the widespread drop in reading skills that occurs in economically disadvantaged elementary students over the summer. Research has shown that over 80 percent ...
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Results of the 2017 Central Texas Reading Survey
Over Half of Austin Children Reading on Mobile Devices A wide body of research consistently shows that reading is one of the most important indicators of personal and professional success, and yet, historically we have known very little about why children and families choose to read. Now, a new reading ...
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Books on the Go!
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 ...
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A Special Thanks to Our Board
(Pictured above: Executive Director Emily Ball Cicchini, President Ann Gass, Immediate Past President Chris Randazzo) BookSpring was pleased and proud to honor some of our long standing board members at our May board meeting, on Wednesday, May 24th. We are blessed with an outstanding board and are always sad to ...
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New Reading Program Shows Promising Results
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 ...
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BookSpring 2017 Luncheon Provides 8000 Books
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 ...
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Thanking Volunteers and Partners for Making a Difference!
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 ...
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Extreme Child Care Center Lobby Makeover!
Wow, what a difference! In May 2016, various organizations partnered with us at Forbes Child Inc. in order to bring new life to our lobby. The vision of our lobby became the vision of not only one person, but a collaborative inclusive one with our staff and families in mind ...
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HACA lunch and learn initiative
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 ...
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Battling the Summer slide with the Andy Roddick Foundation
by Mariela Rodriguez BookSpring and the Andy Roddick Foundation (ARF) partnered up in an effort to battle the summer slide through the foundation’s 2016 Summer Learning Program at Pecan Springs Elementary. The foundation operates a six-week summer learning program with a focus on STEM, literacy, arts, and sports. The overall ...
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Moody Foundation Combats Childhood Illiteracy
BookSpring is proud to announce that the The Moody Foundation has granted a $20,000 gift toward our ReadWell program, which aims to improve family literacy through book distributions at doctor’s offices. The goal is to transform the early childhood well check experience into a reading experience year-round for families. ReadWell ...
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Doing Well for Good at Philanthropitch
On Monday May 2nd, BookSpring presented a Philantropitch at the ZACH Theatre in downtown Austin to a lively audience and a panel of socially conscious entrepreneurs to expand our pediatric literacy services. We were grateful to be the recipients that night of $11,000 from Mission Capital and the audience choice ...
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