Storybooks in Every Backpack
Bilingual picture books, a traveling library van, and Friday-night family reading circles for the children of farmworkers who move with the harvest.
Children of migrant farmworkers change schools two or three times a year. They rarely get a library card that lasts, and most of their homes have no children's books at all, in English or in Spanish. Storybooks in Every Backpack puts a set of five bilingual picture books into the backpack of every kindergartener and first grader in the four labor camps around Salinas: books they own and carry with them to the next town. Once a week our converted mail van visits each camp with a lending library, and on Friday evenings we host reading circles where parents and kids read together, in whatever language feels like home. We are working alongside the camps' own parent committees, who choose the titles with us.
1,200 bilingual picture books (five per child, 240 children): $4,300 Weatherproof book bags and labels: $600 Van shelving, lighting, and insurance: $800 Snacks and supplies for Friday reading circles: $300
Van drivers and shelf-stockers on weekday afternoons, plus reading-circle hosts on Friday evenings from 6 to 7:30 pm. Spanish speakers are especially welcome but every reader is needed.
- For the families who will move on with the harvest before the season ends
- That every child finds one book they read until it falls apart
- For the parent committees leading the reading circles
- For a reliable van and safe drives on farm roads
Hands still needed
Hours are the organizer's estimates. A shift may run a little longer or shorter than listed.