News

We’re excited to share some fantastic news: our B3 Books app has shown an impressive increase in engagement, with families now spending an average of 15 minutes per session. This boost in reading time together is not just a win for the app but also a significant step forward in ...

Introducing the B3 Books App, a companion resource for fostering early literacy and a love for reading in families. This free app, available on both Apple and Android devices, is not just a library of diverse digital books in English and Spanish, but it's also a guide for parents to ...

Exciting news! BookSpring is honored to have received the Nonprofit Impact Award at the Greater Austin Business Awards, hosted by the Austin Chamber of Commerce. This event, which celebrated the resilience and excellence of local businesses and nonprofits, returned on October 10th. This recognition underscores BookSpring's unwavering commitment to community ...

We are thrilled to share the incredible news that BookSpring has been honored as a 2023 Literacy Awards Winner by the Library of Congress. This prestigious recognition is a testament to our commitment to advancing literacy and fostering a love for reading in children and families.  Recognition of Excellence The ...

BookSpring has joined the Diverse Books for All Coalition, a new initiative addressing the need for increased access to diverse children's books. The Coalition is made up of a growing number of nonprofit organizations, including over 30 national and local organizations dedicated to serving children and families. The Coalition aims ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

by Mariela Rodriguez Earlier this month, BookSpring Champion Dan Rourke celebrated his 60th Birthday with a mission. This was no ordinary celebration. He requested no presents in lieu of putting the spotlight on his 6 favorite charities, including BookSpring! He encouraged his friends, family, and other attendees to donate to ...

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 ...

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 ...

BookSpring is a very special place to be. Our mission and vision are tied to the success of children and families and their learning to love books and reading. We can attribute many of our daily successes to the amazing skills and talents of our staff. Today we are saying ...

(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 ...

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 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 ...

This year promises a lot of exciting enhancements to BookSpring’s research-based and time-proven efforts to increase the love of reading in young children and their families. First, we’re pleased to announce the creation of three new positions: BookSpringRx Director, BookSpringEd Director, and BookSpringGo Director, being filled by Cynthia Ivey, Wayne ...

BookSpring was recently awarded a grant from the MAXIMUS Foundation. This foundation awards grants to local community organizations with programs and projects in the areas of child and youth development, health, and community development. “It’s an honor to provide BookSpring with a MAXIMUS Foundation grant that will enable such a ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

BookSpring recently received a generous donation of over $600 from our wonderful benefactor, Little Book of Words. BAB-GAB Little Book of Words has a simple way to help fight illiteracy and open doors for children in need: Buy A Book - Give A Book (BAB-GAB). Every time you buy a ...

Our very own Clinics & Health Partner Manager at BookSpring, Cynthia Ivey, has been appointed to participate in the inaugural group of Community Health Champions for 2016! Community Health Champions is a new Central Health initiative to bring together community members who want to improve access to and the quality ...

BookSpring is proud to be partnering with Pollyanna Theatre Company to present Pattern People, January 23 – 31, 2016 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. This new play for young audiences, written by our very own Emily Ball Cicchini, explores a day in the life of two very ...

Our friend and librarian site coordinator Kay Gooch was featured in today's issue of the Austin American-Statesman! We are all lucky to have passionate people like Kay working with Austin's youth. Click below to check it out! Follow this link to the Austin American-Stateman's website: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/entertainment/gullet-librarian-kay-gooch-is-a-reading-rock-star/npxLG/ ...