The time has come to begin collecting books again. In the last two years, we have donated around 1,500 books to families in needs. While researching facts to share, I came across The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance web page and the article I’ve copied below.
Why Do Kids Need Books
Books create warm emotional bonds between adults and kids when they read books together.
Books help kids develop basic language skills and profoundly expand their vocabularies—much more than any other media.
Books are interactive; they demand that kids think. Fiction and nonfiction books widen our consciousness. They give us new ways to think and new ideas. They expand our universe beyond time and place and inspire our own original thoughts.
Books develop critical thinking skills. A book is read by an individual. It has no laugh track or musical score that emotionally primes a reader’s reaction. You alone decide what you think about a book and its contents with no one leaning over your shoulder telling you how to think.
Books develop and nourish kids’ imaginations, expanding their worlds. Picture books introduce young children to the world of art and literature. Novels and nonfiction books stimulate kids’ sensory awareness, helping kids to see, hear, taste, feel, and smell on an imagined level. Books inform our imaginations, inspiring creativity.
Books let kids try on the world before they have to go out into it. Books give kids an opportunity to experience something in their imaginations before it happens to them in real life. Books help prepare kids for their next stage of maturity, vicariously preparing for the “grown-up” world.
Books help us to understand ourselves, to find out who we are. Books strengthen our self-confidence and help us to understand why we are who we are. They help us discover where we come from and help us figure out where we want to go.
(You can read this article in its entirety at The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance.)
This year, there are several ways you can help us.
- The obvious, donate books! New is preferred, but we also welcome gently used
- Visit our Amazon Wish List and have books sent directly to us.
- Cash or Venmo (@Michelle-VanBenthem) donations are also appreciated. On Stella & Joy’s actual birthday (December 2nd) Zach, Oliver, and I go to the book store and purchase new books with any monitory donations we receive. It has become a nice tradition and something positive to do on an otherwise challenging day.
Thank you to everyone who has supported this venture the last two years, we hope to continue this tradition for many years to come!
~Michelle