\u201cHaving something show up right to your house is awesome,\u201d said father Alan Schug. \u201cThey\u2019re both very hungry for knowledge.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rowan and Finn are among at least 4,200 children receiving free books monthly in northwest Michigan, through grassroots and state-supported efforts that aim to reverse plummeting reading skills<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n While early signs are encouraging, the efforts are at risk. Foundation grants have slowed and ongoing state budget talks do not include allocations to continue early literacy efforts in Traverse City and across Michigan.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not going to turn kids away if we possibly can do it,\u201d said Betsy Moore, coordinator for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Grand Traverse region, which pays for and manages the book program in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut the loss of state funds would be huge.\u201d<\/p>\n The uncertainty comes as Michigan struggles with early literacy. M-STEP scores released in August show less than 40%<\/a> of third graders were reading at a proficient level or higher \u2014 a record low.<\/p>\n A separate test \u2014 the National Assessment of Educational Progress \u2014 found that Michigan ranked 44th in the nation in fourth-grade reading, despite an increase in funding and staffing in recent years<\/a>.<\/p>\n That matters because experts believe early reading skills are critical to academic success, and many business, education and political leaders are sounding the alarm over the state\u2019s lackluster public schools.<\/p>\n Northwest Michigan didn\u2019t wait for schools or politicians to fix the problem. Since the pandemic, community groups and volunteers have coalesced around getting as many books into the hands of as many children as possible.<\/p>\n The programs in northwest Michigan \u2014 the Dolly Parton Imagination Library<\/a> and Power! Book Bags<\/a> \u2014 are available elsewhere. But here, community groups more than tripled the reach of those giveaways: 53% of children up to 5 get a free book in the mail each month from a nonprofit that works with the Dolly Parton program compared to 16% statewide. In addition, Power! Book Bags, which is headquartered here and now has gone statewide, gave away 41,000 books in 2024 in those same counties.<\/p>\n The efforts have different names, but coalesced into a loosely-coordinated grassroots campaign that appears to be one of the largest and most successful in Michigan.<\/p>\n Falling in love with language<\/p>\n While it is too early to measure the impact on reading scores, numerous studies suggest it could help<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cKids love books,\u201d said Kara Gregory, executive director and founder of Power! Book Bags, which focuses on getting books to low-income children. \u201cWe\u2019re teaching families to fall in love with language and literacy and learning.\u201d<\/p>\n Gregory started her nonprofit \u201cliterally pulling books off my kid\u2019s bookshelf\u201d to give away. Nine years later, her organization donates books in 27 Michigan counties and has an annual budget of $800,000.<\/p>\n In northwest Michigan, about 5,000 children received at least one book from the group in 2024, from giveaways at places such as the Salvation Army, Head Start classrooms and food pantries. It\u2019s unclear how many of those children also receive books through the Dolly Parton program.<\/p>\n A former teacher, Gregory recalls being struck by the language gap she\u2019d see when children entered kindergarten.<\/p>\n One study found that children who are read to daily enter kindergarten having heard almost 1.4 million more words<\/a> than their counterparts.\u00a0<\/p>\n An estimated 90% of brain development happens by age 5<\/a>, making the years before a child enters elementary school critical for academic success, said Moore, who manages the region\u2019s Dolly Parton Imagination Library effort.<\/p>\n \u201cFewer than half the kids in our region are ready for kindergarten, and if they\u2019re not ready for kindergarten, the gap grows,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThis early period is so critical \u2014 it sets them on a path for success or to struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n The group pays $2.60 per book to give away to participating children, including 3-year-old Sarai Karner, daughter of Traverse City resident Claire Karner.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing we do when we get it, is to sit down and read it,\u201d Karner said. \u201cPersonally, I would be reading with my kids with or without the program. But for people who maybe don\u2019t have as much access to the library, it really levels the playing field.\u201d<\/p>\n That is vital to state efforts to boost early literacy. On average, students from low-income families score lower on standardized reading tests, which experts attribute in part to less exposure to books.<\/p>\n Addressing that book bottleneck has become a communitywide effort in northwest Michigan. The Rotary Club<\/a> of Traverse City funds a Born to Read<\/a> program that donates books to families of newborns at Munson Medical Center, including a sign-up form for the Dolly Parton program. Since 2023, about 1,700 new parents a year got those books in a welcome bag<\/a> when they leave the maternity ward.<\/p>\n Club members also promote the program at community events, urging parents of young children to sign up for free books.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf the kids aren\u2019t coming into kindergarten ready to learn, they\u2019re so far behind,\u201d said Sharon Workman, chair of the Rotary\u2019s Born to Read committee. \u201cThe problem has become more obvious and recognized, and there were disparate efforts to address it. The more we have people working together, the more successful we\u2019re going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n The group relies on volunteers like Heather Graham, a financial controller for a Traverse City company, who spends her lunch hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays reading to toddlers.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t sit back and wait for someone else to fix it,\u201d Graham said. \u201cYou have to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n Daniel Tiesworth, chief academic officer at the Traverse City district, said getting books into the hands of preschool children can \u201cmitigate some of the language gaps\u201d that early elementary teachers often see.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce families get access to more books, we (can) help parents become more engaged to build on oral skills,\u201d Tiesworth said.<\/p>\n At Traverse City, the share of third graders considered to be proficient readers has dropped from 60% before the pandemic, to 49% in the spring of 2025.<\/p>\n Most of the children who have benefitted from the free book efforts haven\u2019t reached third grade yet, so it\u2019s too early to tell if the programs will improve literacy.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to see our proficiency rate double because of this,\u201d Tiesworth said, \u201cbut research shows us it is a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n Possible funding cuts<\/p>\n Power! Book Bags last year donated more than 100,000 books statewide, including 41,000 in five counties around Traverse City.\u00a0<\/p>\n A poster on its office wall lists 120 donors to the effort last year. In August, the same poster listed 19 so far in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m scared,\u201d founder Gregory said, looking at the poster. \u201cI apply for grants all the time, and we\u2019ve had more denials in the last two months than we\u2019ve had in two years.\u201d<\/p>\n The program isn\u2019t in danger of closing, but its reach could be narrowed with less funding. While donations typically increase in December, Gregory acknowledges that contributions are behind last year\u2019s pace. Without an influx of donations, \u201cwe\u2019re not going to be able to serve as many kids,\u201d Gregory said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so frustrating \u2014 we know what kids need to be successful in life, and it\u2019s not that hard to provide. But we can\u2019t because my hands are tied.\u201d<\/p>\n Use this link<\/a> to find a program near you to receive free books from Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library, a book-gifting program that sends free books to children monthly from birth to age 5.<\/p>\n Use this link<\/a> to see where near you offers free children\u2019s books through the Power! Book Bags program.\u00a0<\/p>\n Birdie\u2019s Bookmobile<\/a> distributes books at no cost to students, schools, and partners through free book fairs, community events and Little Free Libraries<\/a> in metro Detroit.<\/p>\n Meanwhile state funding that helps support both programs is up in the air.<\/p>\n There\u2019s been a $4 million carveout for early literacy programs across Michigan in the past two annual state budgets, but the funding currently is not in the House or Senate versions of the new education budget.<\/p>\n Power! Book Bags received $10,000 from the state out of an $800,000 budget. State funding accounted for 22% of the region\u2019s Dolly Parton Imagination Library free book program ($30,000 out of a $132.000 budget)<\/p>\n Losing $30,000 is the equivalent of 961 children not getting free monthly books in northwest Michigan.<\/p>\n Programs that rely on state funding to purchase free books should have their answer in the coming weeks. The state budget deadline is Oct. 1.<\/p>\n Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown Township, told Bridge he is \u201chopeful we can get (the early literacy funding) secured in the final product.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton, who is chair of the House Appropriations Committee in the House, did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n Twelve states, including Ohio, fund the monthly free book program through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library for all children.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Ohio, 70% of children under the age of 6<\/a> are signed up for the program.<\/p>\n If Michigan were to offer the same to its children and 70% signed up, it would cost about $14 million a year.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a small price to try to improve literacy, Moore said.<\/p>\n Moore was at a Traverse City school event one evening during the last week of August, where she signed up 20 more families for the free book program.<\/p>\n She\u2019s never had to turn children away because of a funding shortfall, but she worries she won\u2019t be able to keep that promise going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cFor $156, Dolly Parton can send books to a child (each month) for five years,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThink of that cost versus the cost of remediating a child\u201d who is struggling to read in school.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n Thank you to our Education Watch sponsors<\/p>\n Education Watch is made possible by generous financial support from our sponsors.\u00a0Please visit the\u00a0About<\/a>\u00a0page for more information and to subscribe to Education Watch. Interested in becoming a sponsor?\u00a0Contact Emma Carr<\/a>.<\/p>\n Republish This Story<\/p>\n![\"Kara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tc-power-books.jpg\")
Kara Gregory\u2019s Power! Book Bags distributed more than 100,000 books in 27 Michigan counties last year in an effort to get kids better prepared for school. (Ron French\/Bridge Michigan)<\/p>\n![\"Sara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tc-book-hospital.jpg\")
Munson Medical Center in Traverse City gives books to the about 1,700 new parents who give birth at the hospital each year, a program that families and hospital workers love, said Sara McClure, manager of maternity services. (Ron French\/Bridge Michigan)<\/p>\n![\"Heather](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tc-book-volunteer.jpg\")
Heather Graham uses her lunch hour twice a week to read to toddlers at a Traverse City child care center. (Courtesy of Heather Graham)<\/p>\n
![\"Creative](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760640435_108_cc-by-nd-4.0.png\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northwest Michigan is giving books to preschoolers in response to decreasing literacy rates Declining donations and state funding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4082,128,130,129,4083],"class_list":["post-4475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-michigan-k-12-schools","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-rural-michigan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475","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=4475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}