Our summer intern Mia Chien, an English major at Stanford University, learned about the Children’s Book Project from her mom, a principal at Rise Prep in the Bayview who gets free books for her students at our Book Bank. Mia enjoys volunteering with us because: “Number one, I love books! Number two, I prefer to do something that makes a big impact — and I know that being able to read matters in everyone’s life. And number three, I’ve been in schools where my fellow students didn’t have enough books. All kids must be able to read, and having books of their own really will make an important difference in their lives.” 

In addition to writing online reviews for Our Readers Recommend page, Mia enjoys working with hundreds of donated books every week, helping us process more than 31,000 books we received in July alone — our most ever in one month! “It’s fun when books from my own childhood come through!  I also love seeing all the diverse new titles that are available now,” she says. “I’m so moved by the joy people express as they pick up great books for the children they work with.”

Having the freedom to read diverse and engaging books is proven to promote children’s joy of reading and boost their reading scores. Further, a meta-analysis shows that continued engagement in reading over the summer benefits children, especially those from low-income backgrounds. Yet the lack of access to enough — or any — high-interest books remains the main barrier to literacy development for under-resourced kids. You can help kids who need more books of their own discover the love of learning and beat the summer slide with free, high-interest, multilingual books! Donate titles from our curated Summer Reading Wishlist, Organize a Children’s Book Drive, Give Books, and Get Books at our Book Bank this summer — and all year round!