{"id":109143,"date":"2026-02-09T15:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109143\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:33:09","slug":"west-philadelphia-nonprofit-using-books-to-help-children-explore-and-understand-their-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109143\/","title":{"rendered":"West Philadelphia nonprofit using books to help children explore and understand their world"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an age shaped by social media and constant information, many parents struggle with how much of the world children should be exposed to. The nonprofit A Book A Day<\/a> believes the right book can help children better understand the world around them and themselves.<\/p>\n

Step inside founder Sibylla Shekerdjiska-Benatova’s home, and it feels less like a house and more like a living library. Thousands of children’s books line the shelves and fill boxes, each one chosen with intention.<\/p>\n

“Books are museums,” Sibylla said. “The types of books we choose have gorgeous illustrations.”<\/p>\n

Those books aren’t just meant to spark imagination. They’re meant to preserve history and offer comfort. In 2000, Shekerdjiska-Benatova immigrated to the United States from Soviet-era Bulgaria with just one suitcase.<\/p>\n

Inside it were some clothes and about 25 children’s books.<\/p>\n

“Books were my comfort blanket,” she said.<\/p>\n

Years later, concerned by what she saw in school libraries \u2014 outdated collections, offensive titles and a lack of funding \u2014 Shekerdjiska-Benatova took action. She created A Book A Day to put new, diverse and meaningful books into the hands of children who might not otherwise have access to them.<\/p>\n

“No new books were coming into libraries because there were no funds,” she said. “What was there was very outdated, sometimes even offensive.”<\/p>\n

What started with two books delivered to two schools each week has now grown into an operation serving thousands of kids across the region. The goal is simple: to show children what’s possible.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to show children that they have the tools,” Shekerdjiska-Benatova said. “That they can do things as well.”<\/p>\n

A core part of the mission is representation.<\/p>\n

“Children of color need to see themselves and White children need to see children of color,” Shekerdjiska-Benatova said.<\/p>\n

The organization also distributes multilingual books, opening doors for children to explore new languages, cultures and experiences. Staff members describe each book as a portal, often to joy and sometimes to wonder.<\/p>\n

One story in particular hits close to home for Shekerdjiska-Benatova \u2014 a book about a young girl forced to leave her country, navigating a world where she isn’t always welcomed.<\/p>\n

“I know what those gestures meant to me,” she said. “Friends who were kind and welcoming.”<\/p>\n

Today, A Book A Day serves schools, medical centers and community spaces throughout the region. Now, Shekerdjiska-Benatova is working on something deeply personal: her very own children’s book.<\/p>\n

It’s a full-circle moment that underscores the heart of the mission: how one book, placed in the right hands, can change how a child sees the world.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an age shaped by social media and constant information, many parents struggle with how much of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8090,28,69,71,70,7523],"class_list":{"0":"post-109143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","12":"tag-philadelphia-news","13":"tag-spreading-the-love"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}