Books for Low-Income Kids

First Book, an organization that distributes brand-new children’s books, sometimes for free, sometimes at deeply discounted rates, to nonprofits around the country. A huge number of families can’t afford daily necessities, and Bornstein argues that books aren’t “luxuries, like silk scarves,” but rather an integral part of a child’s development. He concedes that simply handing books to children won’t solve the education crisis in low-income communities, but, after all, books in the hands of children can’t hurt the situation, either.

In 2008, the First Book Marketplace pulled in publishers, buying swaths of children’s books at deeply discounted rates. What the publishers lose in profits they make up for in security: “Because the organization could aggregate sales across its network, it could make bulk purchases and remove the publishers’ biggest risk: returns.” Bornstein is pretty enthusiastic about the program: “The First Book Marketplace is trying to do for publishing what micro-finance did for banking: crack open a vast potential market that is under-served at significant social cost. The organization’s goal is to democratize book access, but along the way, it may end up reinvigorating the book business.”

But then there are the broader social issues at work: placing a book, used or new, in a child’s hands is not necessarily the start of a life of reading, no matter what the cost. “Get real,” wrote one man from Chicago. “Children’s books at rummage sales are often $0.10 apiece. That’s where we get most of ours. I suspect that the real problem is uneducated parents simply not taking the initiative to spend the time and (minimal) money required on this. Libraries are free and ubiquitous too.” Bornstein does highlight the disparities between libraries in poorer and richer communities, but the commenter has a fair point. But for every child who doesn’t read and won’t, there’s a child who doesn’t read and would like to. Even if First Book can’t solve the systemic problems, there’s nothing wrong with getting books in the hands of the kids who will treasure them.