“80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income populations have no age-appropriate books for their children.”
Neuman, Susan B., et al. Access for All: Closing the Book Gap for Children in Early Education. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2001, p. 3.

“A recent study shows that while in middle income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children.”
Neuman, Susan B. and David K. Dickinson, ed. Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 2. New York, NY: 2006, p. 31.

“Among adults at the lowest level of literacy proficiency, 43% live in poverty. Among adults with strong literacy skills, only 4% live in poverty.”
Reder, Stephen, ed. The State of Literacy in America. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, 1998, p.5.

“The United States could save between $7.9 and $10.8 billion annually by improving educational attainment among all recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, food stamps, and housing assistance.”
Garfinkel, I., Kelly, B., & Wilson, K. (2005). “Public assistance programs: How much could be saved with improved education?” Paper prepared for Social Costs of Inadequate Education symposium, Teachers College Columbia University, October 2005.

“If the male graduation rate were increased by only 5 percent, the nation would see an annual savings of $4.9 billion in crime-related costs.”
Alliance for Excellent Education. Saving futures, saving dollars: The impact of education on crime reduction and earnings. Washington, DC: 2006.

“America could save more than $17 billion in Medicaid and expenditures for health care for the uninsured by graduating all students.”
Alliance for Excellent Education. Healthier and wealthier: Decreasing health care costs by increasing educational attainment. Washington, DC: 2006.

“A new study from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine shows that older people with inadequate health literacy had a 50 percent higher mortality rate over five years than people with adequate reading skills. Inadequate or low health literacy is defined as the inability to read and comprehend basic health-related materials such as prescription bottles, doctor appointment slips and hospital forms.”
Northwestern University. “Low Literacy Equals Early Death Sentence.” ScienceDaily 26 July 2007. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070723160224.htm

“According to the National Academy on an Aging Society, 73 billion dollars is the estimated annual cost of low literacy skills in the form of longer hospital stays, emergency room visits, more doctor visits, and increased medication.”
“Toward a Literate Nation”, Luis Herra, Public Libraries, Jan/Feb 2004. http://www.smcl.org/services/RAR/Statistics.html

“Across the nation just under half of children between birth and five years (47.8%) are read to every day by their parents or other family members.”
Russ S, Perez V, Garro N, Klass P, Kuo AA, Gershun M, Halfon N, Zuckerman B. Reading Across the Nation: A Chartbook (2007): Reach Out and Read National Center, Boston, MA.

“By the age of 2, children who are read to regularly display greater language comprehension, larger vocabularies, and higher cognitive skills than their peers.”
Raikes, H., Pan, B.A., Luze, G.J., Tamis-LeMonda, C.S., Brooks-Gunn, J., Constantine, J., Tarullo, L.B., Raikes, H.A., Rodriguez, E. (2006). “Mother-child book reading in low-income families: Correlates and outcomes during the first three years of life.” Child Development, 77(4).

“The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study found that in the spring of 2000, the children who were read to at least three times a week by a family member were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25% in reading compared to children who were read to less than 3 times a week.”
Denton, Kristen and Gerry West, Children’s Reading and Mathematics Achievement in Kindergarten and First Grade (PDF file), U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Washington, DC, 2002.

People are so busy these days, that taking time out to read on a regular basis has become a luxury for children and adults of every income level. There are many nonprofit organizations that are trying to spread the message that reading is an essential activity for people of every age. If more businesses and individuals find creative ways to support this cause, the world will be a much better place.

Great article!

Coincidentally, we have just started implementing some programs to address some of the features discussed.

Children’s books have long been a staple of our stores but it is true that that section requires more diligence than most – because we do let children browse on their own and we don’t usually have the time to train them … smile.

Every once in a while I have caught one of our staff reading a book to a child – last night I had to tell her it was after closing hours because she and a child were enrapt in a book. The parents were browsing elsewhere in the store.

As they were leaving the little boy said “I’ll put the book right here so we can find it again when I come back.” the boy was about 7 years old.

It gave me the warm fuzzies when the lady mentioned it to me.