Friends of Literacy builds home libraries for low-income children through book distribution, empowers parents and caregivers to be their child’s first teacher by providing literacy resources, and encourages families to establish nightly reading routines.

Research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation showed that children from low-income families start kindergarten 12-14 months behind in language and pre-reading skills compared to children from higher-income families.

Studies show that the effects of language exposure on cognitive and linguistic abilities are evident by age three and as much as 60% of vocabulary at age eight is related to home literacy practices before age three. Yet, only 34% of preschool children from low-income homes are read to daily and 61% of those families do not have any children’s books at home.

Mission: Friends of Literacy empowers families in Knox County and surrounding communities through accessible programs to support early literacy and healthy childhood development.

Vision: To create a community where every individual discovers the power of reading, unlocking imagination and knowledge to build a foundation for lifelong success.

To do well in school, children need to grow up in homes rich with books and caregivers that read to them daily.

  • “Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.”

    Kate DiCamillo

  • “Expand the definition of ‘reading’ to include non-fiction, humor, graphic novels, magazines, action adventure, and, yes, even websites. It’s the pleasure of reading that counts; the focus will naturally broaden. A boy won’t read shark books forever."

    Jon Scieszka

  • “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."

    Emilie Buchwald

  • "A minute spent reading to your kids now will repay itself a million-fold later not only because they love you for reading to them, but also because, years later, when they’re miles away, those quiet evenings when you were tucked in with them, everything quiet but the sound of the page-turns, will seem to you, I promise, sacred."

    George Saunders

  • “There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.”

    Marcel Proust

  • "On days when I’ve felt as though I have nothing left to give to my kids, I’ve been able to sit next to them and open a book. We start reading, and the world looks different."

    Maria Russo

  • "Reading aloud is a restorative that can replenish what technology leaches away. Where the screen tends to separate family members by sending each into his own private virtual reality, reading together draws people closer and unites them."

    Meghan Cox Gurdon