Bread for the Brain

12 reasons to have books around the house:

Featured Products

Education
10 Great Fantasy Books for All Ages! The Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Patterson >>>> A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle >>>> Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt >>>> The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien >>>> Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak >>>> The Call to Shakabaz by Amy Wachspress >>>> Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie >>>> Redwall by Brian Jacques >>>> The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis >>>> The Midnight Farm by Carly Simon
Upcoming Events Reading Chair Book Giveaway--Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota, Spring 2007>>> >>>Panera Free Lunch offer--going on now! Book Sale--Spring 2007>>> Watch here for more details, times and places.
Family Services
Click to give free books! Visit the Literacy Site and click to give free books! The clicks cost you nothing and you don't even have to register. They don't collect personal information or send emails. Just go to www.theliteracysite.com and click once a day. Site sponsors give books for each click and those books come to organizations like Bread for the Brain. It's a no-cost way to support Bread for the Brain!

 We are sending 100 books on an around-the-world tour!

And you can be part of it!

We launched 124 books at the Plant a Seed to Read book fair on Saturday March 24th in Youngstown .  Those books are now travelling around the area.  Maybe one will travel close to you!

Wherever you go, look for books to be laying around looking for a ride.  They might be at your doctor's office, or your auto mechanic, or at the laundramat.  They might be just about anywhere.

If you find a book with this logo  inside the front cover, it could be one of the books we launched.  Take the book home and enter the serial number at www.bookcrossing.com.

Then read it, journal it on our “traveling book” website and pass it on to a friend.

We can all watch the books take their journey.  We’ll post a map on our website to track where the books go.

Let’s see which one will make it around the world first! 

Reading Facts:

·  97% of women and 95% of men who are avid readers as adults began their love affair with books in childhood.

·  One in five adults in the is functionally illiterate.

·  The average middle-income home has 13 books per family member; the average low-income family doesn’t own any books at all.

·  The average person over age 22 in the didn’t buy or read any books last year.

·  The average “A” student reads 2 books a week, besides school books.

Stronger Families Read Together!

58% percent of preschoolers are read to by their parents every day.  Only 20% of first through third graders are read to every day.  Less than 10% of children over 8 are read to by their parents even once a week.  Once children start to read on their own, parents give up reading together as a family.  But that might be too soon.

A recent study showed that children whose parents read to them, even when they are old enough to read on their own, feel closer to their parents and talk to their parents longer each day than children whose parents don’t read to them. 

In a survey of 2,000 middle school and high school students, researchers found that in families that read together, parents spend an average of 18 minutes in conversation with each child.  In homes that don’t read together, the average time spent in conversation is 8 minutes per child.  And, the children whose parents read to them were 66% more likely to talk to their parents about things they considered important.

As little as 5 minutes a day reading as a family can improve family relationships, the study said.

The one thing every one, no matter what ethnic or economic group, can do to strengthen families is to spend time reading together. 

Bread for the Brain on GuideStar!

Bread for the Brain has updated our entry at GuideStar, the online clearinghouse for financial information about non-profit organizations.

You can read about our programs, look at our financial statements, see a few of our goals for 2007 and more.

Take a look at GuideStar today.

And of course if you would like more information, you can contact us by email.

Reading Takes Practice!

That's why Bread for the Brain has been distributing good, new books at food pantries in Ohio since 2000.

We have given away more than 10,000 books to children, parents and grandparents to encourage reading at home. Kids who own books are more likely to read for pleasure than kids who don’t own books. Kids who read more become better readers and are more likely to enjoy reading.

We don’t teach people to read, but we give people books so they can practice their literacy skills.

Bread for the Brain puts books into the hands of the people who need them most. Studies have shown that low-income families typically own few books, and often no books at all. Many of our first-time clients don’t even own a dictionary.

By making books available in food pantries, we reach low-income families directly.

We often hear from parents about kids who once hated to read that have become avid readers because they got to pick out a book at one of our events. Sometimes owning even one book they love gets kids hooked on books. That one book opens a whole world of learning and whets their appetites for reading.

Reading is to the mind what eating is to the body. That’s why books are bread for the brain.

All About US!

Bread for the Brain is a non-profit organization that gives books to residents of low-income, rural and refugee communities so they can practice their literacy skills and fuel their love of reading.

We are 501(c)(3) and a registered charitable organization in Ohio .

If you would like to host a free book giveaway at your food pantry, contact us to arrange a meeting.   

All the books are brand new, free of charge to the recipient and the food pantry, and theirs to keep. 

We never ask for anything in return.  We maintain no records of personal information of the recipients.  We’ve done over 100 giveaways hosted by food pantries since 2000.

Our only goal is to increase reading by giving away books.

Coupon (click image for full size coupon)

Donate $10 and get a free lunch from Panera! Hungry? Get a coupon for a free You-Pick-Two lunch combo good at any Panera in NE Ohio, Western PA or WV. Books are bread for the brain, and Panera is bread for the body! You can look at the Panera menu here: http://www.panera.com/menu/cafe/ Thank you Panera!