Family Book Nights
The Pearson Foundation’s Family Book Nights program is another way that Pearson companies and employees help spotlight the importance of reading and literacy for young people. The program makes it easy for community-focused venues, including preschools, Head Start programs, libraries, and Early Childhood Education development centers, to introduce the importance of early literacy to parents and families. Each Family Book Night helps make it clear to parents that strong reading skills start before actual reading begins.
Supported for families with materials in both English and Spanish, the Family Book Nights program does something more, too: It gives young people and their families the opportunity to extend their reading experience together. During each event, young children and their families are invited to create their very own personalized book – one that they can keep, together with copies of best-selling books published by Pearson’s Penguin, Puffin, and Dorling Kindersley imprints, after the celebration concludes.
At each celebration, the Pearson Foundation donates a customized version of its Pearson Early Learning Library to the evening’s host organization. This library combines books from Penguin, Puffin, and Dorling Kindersley with Read Together, Talk Together, a comprehensive resource published by Pearson Early Learning that helps teach children new words and story content using beautifully illustrated children’s books.
Each event lasts about two hours, beginning with treats and fun time. Invited guests receive refreshments and healthy snacks, as well as games and books to share.
Once everyone is settled in, the celebration typically includes:
- A group reading. During the group reading, children and their families come together for a "read-aloud" of a very special book created expressly for this event. Children will recognize themselves and their teachers in a one-of-a-kind reader presented by their teachers. During the presentation, the teacher who leads the reading models effective read-aloud skills for parents, and concludes with a very brief discussion of these pointers for the benefit of the adults present.
- A custom book activity. Next comes an activity unique to Pearson’s Family Book Night. Each family has the opportunity to create a personalized book for their child! Parents and children take photos and easily add these images to a colorful book especially prepared to encourage literacy skills. When they’re done, every family has something very special: a personalized book they’ll love to read again and again because they made it themselves.
- A family gift. As the evening comes to a close, each family receives a Family Book Night gift bag that’s theirs to take home. Every gift bag has classic children’s books from the Penguin Group, along with simple pamphlets that contain valuable reading tips from Pearson’s Early Learning programs.
Each of the evening’s components can be managed by the host organization, with support from the Pearson Foundation. That’s because the Pearson Foundation – in some cases together with other partners – sponsors the full cost of the event and provides the necessary pre-event staff support to ensure that the evening is a great success.
