Supporters Like You

Helena is quick to admit she did not love reading as a child. Her parents once paid her to finish a book. She laughs about it now, but she remembers the frustration. That memory shapes everything she does.

After years teaching multiple grades, serving as a Title I interventionist, leading special education teams, earning a doctorate, and teaching future educators, one belief guides her work: Every child deserves a book that feels like it belongs to them.

Helena found First Book after receiving a New York Times Book Desert Wish. It opened the door to high-quality, affordable books that reflect her students’ lives. English and Spanish titles. Bilingual Haitian Creole books. Stories about sports heroes, humor, family, and friendship.

One student wore a Lionel Messi jersey almost every day. Helena ordered The Little Golden Book About Lionel Messi in English and Spanish. He read one at school and shared the other at home with his family.

Another student, a Haitian Creole speaker, became the classroom expert when Helena ordered bilingual books for his class. He read aloud in his home language. His confidence filled the room. “These are the moments,” Helena says, “we want them to want to be here.”

Schools like Helena’s are expected to meet growing needs with limited tools which is why First Book matters. The books in calming corners. The LEGO kits in classrooms. The bilingual titles that connect school to home. These are not extras. They are how belonging is built.

First Book supporters help create those moments every day by providing culturally relevant books, classroom resources, and tools that help children feel calm, capable, and included. Helena’s story is a reminder that change does not always start with big programs. Sometimes it starts with a child, a choice, and the right book on the shelf.

* ‎name changed for privacy and safety.

First Book Network member Marlene would call it something else. Marlene is the Reading 2 Succeed Specialist for a Mississippi school district. She has spent her career helping children learn to read and knows there are no miracles. There are only educators who refuse to give up. Marlene does not start with data. She starts with children.

She remembers a young girl from Russia who spoke no English and cried constantly at school. Unsure what would help, Marlene ordered Russian-language books through First Book. When she handed them to the child, everything changed. The tears stopped. Her face lit up. She finally felt seen.

Then there was the child whose mother spoke only Bengali. Conferences relied on Google Translate. Communication was hard. But when bilingual books from First Book went home, something shifted. Families felt welcomed. Learning felt shared.

Every child in Marlene’s district chooses books to keep. Family literacy nights end with books going home. Marlene has placed Little Free Libraries across the community and created portable libraries for churches and barbershops.

She remembers refilling one library inside a school when a nervous child walked in, spotted an English-Spanish book, and sat right down on the floor to read. When the child asked if the books needed to be returned, Marlene smiled. “No,” she said. “They’re yours.”

That is what access looks like in practice. It is also what supporters of First Book make possible. Across the country, First Book equips educators like Marlene with brand-new, culturally relevant books so children are not asked to learn without tools.

The Mississippi story is not a miracle. It is proof. Proof that when educators are trusted, supported, and resourced, children rise. And that progress happens one child, one book, and one determined educator at a time.

*name changed for privacy and safety.