The Bremen Public Library in Indiana offered the first 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program, created from the inspiration found in Mem Fox’s, Reading Magic. It spread from there, with libraries primarily in the Midwest and a few in the Northeast offering the program. This initiative launched at Paddington Station in September of 2013.
Our hope is that together we can share the love of literature with all our Paddington students and that through this program we are also able to present families with information on early literacy and titles of quality children’s literature. By listening to stories and reading together, you can be transported to another land, creating images of places far away. Children develop a solid foundation for imaginative play and pre-reading skills. Every book opened holds the possibility of new vocabulary, new concepts, and a conversation starter. Anita Silvey, former publisher of children’s books and editor of the Horn Magazine wrote, “The act of reading to a child is the most important contribution of our society that adults can make.” Early exposure of books to children will instill a lifelong love of reading in young children. Please visit our little library to take a book, leave a book or sit on our stairs and enjoy a book.
Ways we’ve worked to achieve this goal since adding our Little Free Library:
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten… it’s about a book a day! We've selected some of our favorites to help you get started!
Our hope is that together we can share the love of literature with all our Paddington students and that through this program we are also able to present families with information on early literacy and titles of quality children’s literature. By listening to stories and reading together, you can be transported to another land, creating images of places far away. Children develop a solid foundation for imaginative play and pre-reading skills. Every book opened holds the possibility of new vocabulary, new concepts, and a conversation starter. Anita Silvey, former publisher of children’s books and editor of the Horn Magazine wrote, “The act of reading to a child is the most important contribution of our society that adults can make.” Early exposure of books to children will instill a lifelong love of reading in young children. Please visit our little library to take a book, leave a book or sit on our stairs and enjoy a book.
Ways we’ve worked to achieve this goal since adding our Little Free Library:
- Purchasing new books each year
- Reading daily in classrooms
- Displaying books at children's level in each classroom and throughout open areas in the school
- Evaluating our library each year ensuring our shelves are filled with books from diverse voices inclusive of all people
- Adding books in each language spoken by our students
- A visit from the Denver Public Library in our Creative Explorations class in May 2019 to create books with our littlest students and to share books for the children to take home to read with their families
- A read-aloud with Congresswoman Mary Beth Susman in Spring 2019
- Hosting read-alouds and book signings with authors and illustrators:
- September 2013 with Children's Author, Peter Brown
- October 2016 with author David Shannon in celebration of his newly published book ‘Duck on a Tractor’
- March 2025 Children's Author and Illustrator Anden Wilder shared her new book Scamp
- September 2013 with Children's Author, Peter Brown
- One of our ‘Families Helping Families’ initiatives was to collect new books for Reach Out and Read Colorado
- Participation in One Book 4 Colorado
- The introduction of the Reading Rocket, the Denver Public Library Book Mobile at the Spring Festival
- The opening of our own Little Free Library
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten… it’s about a book a day! We've selected some of our favorites to help you get started!
