School Readiness Initiative

100 Book Challenge®

The Early Literacy 100 Book Challenge Program® is an initiative sponsored by Focus on Our Future to dramatically increase the amount of reading experiences children receive prior to entering kindergarten. Research indicates that children have better language and cognitive development if read to at an early age. More reading leads to a better vocabulary in the child. Unfortunately, research also shows that, on average, a child from a high-poverty home is read to for an average of only 25 hours before they enter kindergarten. The goals of the Early Literacy 100 Book Challenge Program® are to:

• Provide classrooms and families with hundreds of great books to read to children
• Ensure that every child is read to at home
• Allow children opportunities to practice pre-reading skills
• Ensure that children and adults talk about the books they read and how these books connect to their lives
• Develop independent reading and listening skills and the vocabulary and attention span of the program children

The program provides a library of high-quality books to children enrolled in early-childhood education programs that feed into the York City School District. Parents and family members are partners in promoting early literacy skills with their children, who take home self-selected books. Nearly 150 children from the following early childhood education programs participate in the 100 Book Challenge program®:

• Crispus Attucks
• Even Start
• York Day Nursery
• YMCA
• YWCA, King St
• YWCA, Market St

This year, most of the kindergarten children who participated in the 100 Book Challenge Program® while enrolled in an early-childhood education program achieved Honor Roll. Their teachers commented that these children have better reading skills, vocabularies and attention spans.