Fact: The educational careers of 25 to 40 percent of American children are imperiled because they don't read well enough, quickly enough, or easily enough. (Committee on Preventing Reading Difficulties, National Research Council, 1998)

Fact: Disadvantaged students in the first grade have a vocabulary that is approximately half that of an advantaged student (2,900 and 5,800 respectively). (Graves, 1986 / White, Graves & Slater, 1990)

Fact: Approximately 50 percent of the nation's unemployed youth age 16-21 are functionally illiterate, with virtually no prospects of obtaining decent paying jobs. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

Fact: Over one million children drop out of school each year, costing the nation over $240 billion in lost earnings, forgone tax revenues, and expenditures for social services. (McQuillan, 1998)

Fact: More than three out of four of those on welfare, 85% of unwed mothers and 68% of those arrested are illiterate. About three in five of America's prison inmates are illiterate. (Washington Literacy Council)

Fact: More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level - far below the level needed to earn a living wage. (National Institute for Literacy, Fast Facts on Literacy, 2001)

Fact: To participate fully in society and the workplace in 2020, citizens will need powerful literacy abilities that until now have been achieved by only a small percentage of the population. (National Council on Teachers of English Standards for the English Language Arts)

Fact: In 1999, only 53 percent of children aged 3 to 5 were read to daily by a family member. Children in families with incomes below the poverty line are less likely to be read aloud to everyday than are children in families with incomes at or above the poverty line. (The National Center for Education Statistics, NCES Fast Facts, Family Reading)

Fact: First grade children with good word recognition skills were exposed to almost twice as many words (as young) readers as were children who had poor word recognition skills. (Juel, 1988)

Fact: Reading aloud to children is the single most important activity for building knowledge required for eventual success in reading. (National Academy of Education's Commission on Reading, 1985)

Fact: Children's comprehensive, conceptual and behavioral patterns are primarily shaped between the ages of birth to five years. It is especially important for families and child caregivers to read to children early and often. (Essa, E. Introduction to Early Childhood Education (2nd ed.). Albany, NY: Delmar)

Fact: While a variety of experiences contribute to the preschool child's emerging literacy, there is overwhelming consensus among researchers that exposure to children's books is particularly important. (Anderson, AB, Stokes, SJ. Social and institutional influences and the development and practive of literacy. In: Goleman H, Oberg A, Smith F, eds. Awakening to Literacy. Exeter, NH: Heinemann: 1984:23.)

Fact: By reading to infants, parents can help their children develop an understanding about print at an early age as infants learn to make connections between words and meaning. By engaging children at an early age in reading and allowing children to observe those around them in reading activities, parents can help foster a lifelong passion for reading that leads to benefits in all areas of development as children grow older. (National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1997). Helping Children Learn About Reading. (Online). Available: http://npin.org/library/texts/home/learnabo.html [1997, September 25])

Fact: For infants and toddlers as well as preschool children, books provide a context for language and cognitive developments related to literacy acquistion and school success. Rhythmic speaking and holding enhance infant attention. (Brown, DR, Ottinger CD. The Perceptual Basis of Developing Reading Skill: Final Report. Washington DC: Office of Education, Bureau of Research; 1970. US Department of Health, Education and Welfare publication RMQ66004)

Fact: Reading to children is one of the best ways to promote positive attitudes toward reading and to give children the sounds and words of literacy and reading. Beginning at birth, all children should be read to with regularity and enthusiasm. (Southern Early Childhood Association (2002) Early Literacy and Beginning to Read: A Position Statement of the Southern Early Childhood Association. Southern Early Childhood Association: Dimensions of Early Childhood, 30(4), 28-31)

Fact: Reading aloud to young children helps to develop vocabulary, phonological awareness, oral language skills, fluency, and a positive attitude toward learning. (Barrentine, S.J. Engaging with reading through interactive read-alouds. The Reading Teacher, 50(1), 36-43)

Fact: Reading aloud to children is one of the most effective and inexpensive activities parents, caregivers and educators can do to promote literacy. Children who are introduced to books early and read to on a regular basis do better in school. (Herb, S. (1997) Building Blocks for literacy: What current research shows. School Library Journal, 43(7), 23)

Fact: In a study conducted of kindergartners, those who were read to at least three times a week as they entered kindergarten were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25 percent of literacy tests than children who were read to less than three times a week. (National Institute for Literacy (2006). The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Available online. http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/ECLS.html)

Fact: Children who are read to frequently are nearly twice as likely as other children to show three or more skills associated with emerging literacy. (Nord, C.W., Lennon, J., Liu, B., Chandler, K. (1999). Home Literacy Activities: Signs of Children’s Emerging Literacy: 1993 and 1999. From the National Center for Family Literacy, 2005)

Fact: Children in poor families are less likely to be read to daily. A U.S. Department of Education Survey found that 46 percent of children in families in poverty were read to every day, compared with 61 percent of children in families living above the poverty line. (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics (1996). National Household Education Study, 1995. Washington DC: Author)

Fact: 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. ( National Center for Education Statistics (1993) The Condition of Education. Washington DC: National Center for Education Statistics)

Fact: Some experts believe that for America's poorest children, the biggest obstacle to literacy is the scarcity of books and appropriate reading material. (Needlman R, Fried L, Morley D, Traylor S, Zuckerman B. Clinic-Based Intervention to Promote Literacy. American Medical Association American Journal of Diseases of Children; 145(881) 1991)

Fact: A team of researchers concluded that nearly two-thirds of the low income families they studied owned no books for their children. As a result, direct access to books is extremely limited for these children, a fact that significantly impacts their educational growth and development as well as their sense of creativity and imagination. (McQuillan, Jeff. The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions. 1998)

Fact: The problems continue as people with low literacy levels enter adulthood. Among adults at the lowest level of literacy proficiency, 43% live in poverty. Among adults with strong literacy skills, only 4% live in poverty. (The State of Literacy In America, 1998)