There's a literacy crisis in the United States and around the world. And it affects everybody. Here's why:

The Impact on Our Children, Families and Communities:

• Among adults at the lowest level of literacy proficiency, 43% live in poverty. Among adults with strong literacy skills, only 4% live in poverty
• 25% of all U.S. students who do not receive a high school diploma have received government assistance
• American business currently spends more than $60 billion each year on employee training, much of it for remedial reading, writing, and mathematics
• Annual health care costs in the U.S. are four times higher for individuals with low literacy skills than they are for individuals with high level literacy skills
• One-half of all adults in U.S. federal and state correctional institutions cannot read or write at all
• Eighty-five percent of juvenile offenders have reading problems
• Illiteracy and low literacy in adults can be linked to almost every socio-economic problem in the United States and abroad. Low literate adults:
  • Do poorly in the job market
  • Lack the skills to help their children be successful in school
  • Are more likely to suffer from poor health
  • Are more likely to receive public assistance

Children in Poverty are Most at Risk

• There are 26 million children living in poverty in the United States
• Children from low-income families enter school at a disadvantage: The gap between children from low and high-income families on reading comprehension scores is more than 40 points
• On average, children from low-income families have far fewer literacy and language experiences at home than their classmates
• Children from low-income families are 50% more likely than children from high-income families to be seven years old or older and still in the first grade
• Children from low-income families are less likely to attend pre-kindergarten programs, more likely to have trouble with their schoolwork, and more likely to repeat grades in school
• The only behavioral measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the number of books in the home

Access to Books is Essential to Reading Development

• The more types of reading materials there are in the home, the higher students score in reading proficiency
• Students who do more reading at home are better readers and have higher math scores
• For many children, the home environment is the place they are introduced to books and reading
• Children who have been exposed to a number of reading experiences at an early age are given the chance to learn to love books and stories - a love that they often take into adulthood