Thanks to the generosity of First Community Cares Foundation, Hess, HISD, Ladies for Literacy, Oxy, Phillips 66, and our Young Professionals Group, thousands of children in high-need elementary schools received books through our signature My Home Library program. Volunteers from these companies and organizations also helped to distribute the new book bundles and conducted read-alouds to students in their classrooms.

Since the creation of My Home Library, more than 156,000 home libraries (940,000 new books) have been distributed to economically disadvantaged students across Houston and beyond.

This semester, 29 schools were sponsored, allowing 12 new schools to receive books for their students. Although the My Home Library school roster has evolved over time, some campuses have partnered with the Foundation’s My Home Library initiative for several years in a row.

“This is the fifth year the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation has sponsored our students with home libraries…[For] our current fifth graders, this will be the fifth year. They started receiving books from Barbara Bush [Houston Literacy Foundation] since their first-grade year, so their home collections have grown every year!” said PSTEM Academy Principal Diana Chavez. “They’re leaving me heading to sixth grade with 25 different books of all sorts of genres at home that they can refer to…it represents not just our school and our commitment to literacy, but that it's a community expectation. It’s not just their teachers, their principal, or their parents, but other people in town believe in the act of literacy and the importance of reading every day.”

We can’t expect children to become great readers if they lack the resources needed to practice their reading skills outside of the school day. Increasing access to books at home is a research-proven strategy to improve reading achievement levels and foster a lifelong love of reading.

If you wish to sponsor a home library of six new books for a child in need, please click the button below. Your $30 tax-deductible gift will make a meaningful difference.