To celebrate their 25 years of partnership, Penguin Random House and national education nonprofit First Book will host two free virtual events on Monday, November 17. These livestreamed presentations will honor PRH and First Book’s longtime collaboration, which has resulted in 42 million books donated to children in need. The events also are meant to grow the membership of First Book, a 501(c)3 organization founded in 1992 and headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Both events will be hosted on the First Book Community Platform, a new digital site where members can access Book Bank donations, an e-commerce marketplace, and discussion spaces to share ideas.
In the first livestream, at 1–2 p.m. ET on November 17, Magic Tree House series author Mary Pope Osborne will read from her recently published Windy Night with Wild Horses and participate in a Q&A for First Book members and their students. Pope Osborne, whose Classroom Adventure Program provides grants and resources for teachers, has donated more than a million books through First Book programs.
Later in the day, a panel from 6–7 p.m. ET will address the importance of becoming a reader. Pope Osborne will join Carmela Iaria, VP of school and library marketing at PRH, and Jill Sonke, coauthor of a study that identified a decline in reading for pleasure.
Sonke and her team have reported that only 16% of adults they surveyed in 2023 read for pleasure, and although 21% of respondents had a child younger than nine years old, only 2% read with a child on an average day. The researchers concluded that the low rates of reading with children could lead to further declines in readership among adults—bad news for generational literacy and for the book business.
“Reading with children is one of the most promising opportunities to support literacy and well-being for adults and children alike,” Sonke said in a statement for PRH and First Book. “Increasing access to books and creating a culture of reading as a social norm has enormous public health and community benefits.”
First Book Research & Insights, the organization’s research arm, added that books are not widely available in communities with lower incomes, and teachers commonly spend their limited out-of-pocket money on books and supplies for classrooms and individual students.
Widening outreach to young readers
The First Book Network has a membership of more than 600,000 teachers, librarians, and volunteers, representing an estimated 6.5 million students. With PRH and other publishers, First Book has distributed some 250 million books to young readers. By 2030, First Book plans to bring in more educators and ultimately quadruple the number of students it reaches to an estimated 27 million.
First Book president and CEO Kyle Zimmer said this aim is ambitious but realistic. “We need 1 million new members to join in the next five years,” Zimmer said, “and there are 2 million Title I teachers,” about 450,000 of whom work with First Book already. Public libraries, churches, healthcare clinics, and other organizations are eligible too. When teachers sign up for an event, Zimmer added, “you can multiply every one of them by at least 30 kids who will be in their classroom.”
First Book is free to join, and registrants provide proof of their work with under-resourced communities in order to qualify for donations and deep discounts. Members nationwide—whatever their state and local policies—get to select the books that are right for their classrooms and libraries. And First Book doesn’t run on donated inventory alone. “We’re actually the largest specialty buyer for most of the major publishers,” Zimmer said. “The models we've designed harness the best strengths of the U.S. publishing industry and bring books into the lives of kids. Some of it is donated; some of it is purchased.”
Zimmer acknowledges the challenges facing nonprofits and believes that “every sector”—public and private—has a role to play in advancing literacy. “The good news is, we are ready to go on this scaling initiative right when the need is at its greatest,” she said. “It’s thrilling to work with great publishers like PRH and others to elevate author engagement and wonderful events” such as the upcoming virtual presentations.
PRH CEO Nihar Malaviya endorses First Book’s mission to provide free and affordable books and explained why PRH has supported the nonprofit for a quarter of a century. “Expanding access to books for children creates lifelong readers and is one of the most meaningful ways we as publishers can make a difference,” Malaviya told PW. “Through our longstanding partnership with First Book, we’re able to reach millions of children and educators in communities across the U.S.”
In addition to donating books, PRH funds gift credits that educators can apply when accessing First Book Marketplace, the nonprofit’s e-commerce site. Malaviya said that PRH wants to supply children with “books they can see themselves in and learn from. Every student should have the opportunity to read a wide range of books that build empathy, spark connection, and expand perspectives—and First Book is making this possible through the remarkable work they do.”
Zimmer wants to be a bridge between publisher partners and the schools, libraries, and organizations that work directly with children. “Millions of people dedicate themselves to improving educational outcomes for kids in need,” Zimmer said. “First Book has spent 34 years refining our models. Now we’re ready to put our hand on that volume knob and crank it, and we need people to talk to people to make sure that happens.”
