Book Harvest Impact Report

Books for every child (from birth!)

Support for every parent.

Literacy for every community.

BOOKS

FOR EVERY CHILD.

Book Harvest provides free, culturally inclusive books to children starting at birth, helping them build home libraries. Since its founding in 2011, children have harvested 1.9 million books from Book Harvest!

support

FOR EVERY parent.

Book Harvest knows that literacy begins at birth, in the home, with parents.

literacy

FOR EVERY community.

Book Harvest celebrates literacy by hosting community events and creating marketing campaigns that emphasize the importance of books from birth, the joy of reading, and the power of parents.

The summer of 2022 was filled with the joy of books! In this Summer Book Report, you will find a summary of our book access work from May through August 2022, during which kids harvested 132,699 books!


In May, our team was busy ensuring students at 32 elementary schools went home with books for the summer; in July we held our Summer Block Party at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park; over the course of several weeks we expanded our laundromat initiative by adding a new location; our team worked hard to install Book Boxes around the city; and we opened our brand new Family Space to the public!


The work we did this summer wouldn't have been possible without the support of our partners and donors -- this Book Report also serves as a public message of gratitude to the individuals, organizations, and businesses who helped us reach our goal.


We hope you enjoy this Book Report!

With joy,





Tabitha Blackwell

Executive Director, Book Harvest Durham

Table of Contents

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Books on Break

The Partnerships That Made It Happen

What Our Partners Say

Summer Block Party

The Family Space

Better Together

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82%

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Books on Break survey results among school staff:

14,360 students 70,315 books 32 public elementary schools

Returning to in‐person book selection after two years of pandemic modifications, Books on Break ran in May and June 2022, reaching every elementary student in 30 Durham Public Schools, along with two schools in Columbus and Bladen Counties.

believe the books provided were culturally relevant for their student populations

believe the books provided were high quality and high interest for their students

would recommend Books on Break to other teachers and schools

agree that Books on Break supports their school’s literacy goals for their students

report that students are better equipped to maintain their reading skills over the summer as a result of participating in Books on Break

report that students expressed excitement about reading the books selected

Books on Break

Speech Bubble

The students were excited about the books, and really enjoyed the chapter books. There are quite few that aren't proficient in reading and these books will engage them in moving forward in their learning during

the summer break.

- Teacher

Speech Bubble

Most of our students do not have access to a variety of books at home. This was a great opportunity to have books that they can keep and enjoy.

- Teacher

Speech Bubble

I am blown away by the books you all provided! Such beautiful, joyful,

and important stories!

- Media Coordinator

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Speech Bubble

Thank you for being so kind and letting SO many kids get books for free and making time for us.

- DPS Student

Speech Bubble

Books are amazing and a part of my life. That's why I'm so grateful for these books. I love them. And even if I finish reading

all the books I will reread over and over again.

- DPS Student