Children who grow up in homes with books, research shows, have much higher reading scores and go farther in the education system than others. But many children can’t get books at home because their families just don’t have the money or have other problems. The AFT partners with First Book to help reduce the achievement gap between low-income and middle-class students. First Book has distributed more than 90 million new books to children across the United States, many of whom could not afford them.

“If kids don’t have books at home, how can we actually ask parents to be our partners in the reading process,” says AFT President Randi Weingarten. “First Book and our union created this partnership to say, ‘How can we find ways to get paperback books in the hands of kids so that they could take them home and read them?’”

This video features the power of alliance-building as AFT teamed up with First Book to place books in the homes of children.

Read the new In Our Communities website feature Shelf Life: AFT Helps Put Books in Homes.