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When Maria arrived in the United States eight years ago with her young family, she carried dreams weighted by uncertainty. A new country, a new language, and the daunting task of starting over left her feeling isolated. During her baby’s first pediatrician visit, she received an unexpected gift that would transform her family’s journey: An invitation to join a program providing free books from birth.
“For us, what started as a simple gift of a book, became a gift of belonging, identity and hope…it helped us to find our place here,” Maria shared.
The science is clear: Early relational health — the strong emotional connection between caregivers and children — forms the foundation for lifelong well-being, according to research published in Developmental Psychology in 2020. What’s remarkable is how something as simple as shared reading and story times can create these essential moments of connection.
For Maria’s family, their daily reading routine became treasured family time, helping them feel closer despite the challenges of adapting to a new country. Her son learned to walk with a book in hand, waiting by the door for his father’s return — the book becoming a bridge between parent and child.
Tiara discovered the power of books when her oldest child was in second grade and got to choose 10 free books to take home and keep forever. The newly recognized importance and joy of having children’s books in the home soon trickled down to her two younger children, with whom she started reading at birth.
“They find comfort in the stories that they read, comfort in the connection that they may have had when we were sitting on the couch on a cold day with the fireplace on,” Tiara shared.
The 10 books her son received in elementary school evolved into a family legacy of loving books, transforming how all three of Tiara’s children learn and imagine their futures.
Maria and Tiara’s stories emerge from Book Harvest, a North Carolina-based organization that has provided 2.5 million books to families in their community and throughout the United States. The organization’s approach is guided by two simple principles: Abundance and joy. Book Harvest works to ensure that families have opportunities to build home libraries filled with children’s books from the moment their child is born, and to transform reading from an obligation into a celebration.
Maria and Tiara shared their experiences with a room full of funders and policymakers from across the country in February, as a part of the Early Relational Health Funders Summit held in Durham. The attendees came to Book Harvest for a session entitled “Planting the Seeds of Literacy Through Early Relational Health.” During the session, Book Harvest founder and CEO Ginger Young observed that the session could have just as aptly been named “Planting the Seeds of Early Relational Health Through Literacy.”
“We see the power of what happens when you equip a parent with the tools for storytime. Books and the stories, words, and ideas that they hold unlock everything we hope for our kids: Imagination, empathy, curiosity, self-expression, attention. But perhaps, most of all, they forge magnificent bonds,” Ginger shared.
When parents and children share stories, they’re not just reading words on a page — they’re building emotional connections, creating shared experiences, and strengthening family resilience that will last a lifetime.
In times of growing digital distraction, this work to build a literacy-rich home environment reminds us of the irreplaceable value of a parent and child sharing a physical book. Together, they create what health care providers call “serve-and-return” interactions —the back-and-forth engagement that builds neural connections in young brains and emotional connections between generations.
The beauty of this approach lies in its simplicity and scalability. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, approximately 10,000 children are born in the United States every day. Imagine if each of them received not just books, but the gift of strengthened family bonds through shared reading. As Maria reflected, “A child with a book in his hand can have a bigger view of the world around them.”
Book Harvest’s vision — literacy and justice for all — isn’t just about creating better readers. It’s about building stronger families and more connected communities. In a world that often feels fractured, these moments of connection through shared stories offer a path forward — one book, one story, one family at a time.
