Literacy Facts

The single most significant factor influencing a child’s early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to prior to beginning school. - National Commission on Reading
By age 2, children who are read to regularly display greater language skills, comprehension, larger vocabularies, and cognitive skills than their peers. - Childhood Development 2006

By age 3, there is a 30 million word-gap heard by children from affluent families and poorer families. - From a study by psychologists Betty Hart & Todd H. Ridley

61% of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children. - Reading Literacy in the U.S.
In low-income neighborhoods, the ratio of age-appropriate books is 1 for every 300 children. - Handbook of Early Literacy, Volume 2
34% of children entering kindergarten lack the basic skills to read. - Reading is Fundamental

Children who struggle in vain with reading in the first grade, soon decide they neither like nor want to read. - Mueller 1998
A child who is not reading proficiently by the end of third grade has a 63% chance of dropping out of school, becoming a welfare recipient, or of being incarcerated. - DoSomething: 11 Fax About Poverty in America
The most serious problem with literacy campaigns is that they ignore the real problem: - The lack of access to books. - Krashew 2009