Hear from Deborah Caldwell-Stone, American Library Association; Melanie Claxton, Benedum Foundation; Jennifer Stavrakos, William Penn Foundation; and Carla Thompson Payton, W.K. Kellogg Foundation about how ensuring broader access to diverse books can bolster efforts to promote children’s early literacy and school success, and the wide range of roles that funders can play to increase access.

Half of homes across the United States qualify as “book deserts,” meaning they have fewer than 100 books in them. Homes in low-income communities are more likely to be book deserts, and African American, Latinx and Native American families are disproportionately affected. But, even when families have access to children’s books, those books might not reflect the diversity that would allow them to function as what Rudine Sims Bishop, Ph.D., calls “mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors.” These kinds of books enable children to see themselves reflected in the stories they are reading; to view other worlds and reflect on how they compare with their own; and to enter worlds other than their own, building deeper understanding and empathy. Ensuring broader access to diverse books can bolster efforts to promote children’s early literacy and school success, and there are a wide range of roles that funders can play to increase access.