Founder's Message
Chapter One of Book Harvest’s story began in 2011. The setting was a dusty garage filled with donated books, and the cast of characters was small…just a handful of quirky dreamers eager to join me in unlocking book ownership and a love of a good story for children in Durham, North Carolina. From those humble origins, Book Harvest’s story has been written with a momentum I could have never imagined. From a few boxes of donated books in a garage to more than 3 million books harvested by children and families—books they have taken home to read again and again, theirs to keep forever.
In our home community of Durham, we have forged an ecosystem of robust and resilient children’s literacy, fueled by our dream of books for every child and support for every parent, starting at birth, and by a passion for helping every community build a culture of childhood literacy. It is spectacular to witness. And, fortified by all that Durham has taught us, it is time to grow.
With 15 years of experience, we are now expanding our mission— and our impact—beyond our flagship community of Durham. Book Harvest works to realize a world of literacy and justice for all—a world in which:
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Every child grows up with an abundant home library from birth and with a love of books, reading, and learning;
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Every child identifies as a reader, equipped with the language and literacy tools to thrive in school, work, and life;
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Every parent feels supported, celebrated, and affirmed in their role as their child’s first teacher and brain-builder; and
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Every parent is abundantly equipped to establish and sustain self-determined habits of shared reading from their child’s earliest days.
Book Harvest has identified one crucial remedy for the children’s literacy crisis in America that can fling open the gates of literacy for every child: book ownership. A home library that builds the foundation of literacy—first between parent(s) and baby and later with a child in school—is an essential component of the long work to build a sturdy, reliable, and universally common experience of literacy for every child—and from there to educational success and lifelong well-being.
A home library from birth is necessary to children’s literacy success and lifelong well-being. To start strong, we must equip parents with a starter home library, to ignite literacy for their newborn from day one.
NOW is the time for Book Harvest to do the hard and essential work to transform children’s literacy across the country. Now more than ever—when less than half of all U.S. children who live in poverty enter kindergarten ready to learn, and when book ownership is not within reach of every child—it is an imperative to bring what we know to other communities.
Every child deserves to grow up in a home rich with books, words, vocabulary, stories. We intend to be there for them, with an abundance of books and literacy support, as they write their stories.
With hope,
Ginger Young
Founder and Chief Executive Officer