Early literacy and love of reading is so important, and has lifelong benefits for young readers. In order to encourage this, libraries and parents can participate in the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program! Reading 1,000 books sounds impressive, and it definitely is! But as their website explains, it’s completely achievable:

“Read a book (any book) to your newborn, infant, and/or toddler. The goal is to have read 1,000 books (yes you can repeat books) before your precious one starts kindergarten. Does it sound hard? Not really if you think about it. If you read just 1 book a night, you will have read about 365 books in a year. That is 730 books in two years and 1,095 books in three years. If you consider that most children start kindergarten at around 5 years of age, you have more time than you think (so get started).”

Maybe your reader will be able to take their love of reading to the Library of Congress to meet Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, as this four-year old did! “Daliyah Maria Arana, a 4-year-old bibliophile from Georgia who has already read 1,000 books, was right at home as “Librarian for the Day” at the Library of Congress…Daliyah read her first book on her own at 2 years, 11 months old. Since then, she has read more than 1,000 books through the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. Having already met the goal, she wants to reach 1,500 books by the time she actually starts kindergarten in the fall.”

The program’s website has tons of helpful resources, like this list of recommended books to read to your child, printable reading logs, and a blog. And yes, they have an app too, along with the hashtag #1000BooksB4K

Is your library participating in this program, or have you participated as a parent with a young child? We’d love to hear about your experience!