Connecting kids with books they love to nurture reader identities - at home & in the classroom.

Our Programs

HOW IT WORKS

Your donations go toward buying new and very gently used books children want to read--books about space, books about animals, books about feelings and identity and family, books with mirrors for kids to see themselves.

NBC Book Cart Program

The Book Cart Program grows home libraries full of new, diverse and meaningful books for young readers. Our team works hard to offer students curated book choices that speak to their interests and needs. Students will take home a new book every week for 6 weeks. These books are theirs to keep forever!

Our mobile book carts allow students to interact with books (and book lovers). NBC Team members manage mobile book carts during classroom visits or at the end of the school day and work with students to find their books.

NBC Classroom Program

The NBC Classroom Program is a resource for our educator partners. Through this partnership, NBC team members work with teachers to build their own classroom libraries full of new books that support their teaching and learning needs. NBC team members offer additional support through read-alouds, reading circles and classroom activities.

NBC Tools

Interactive Teacher Platform

In order to best connect students with books they’re excited about, we invite their teachers to help. Teachers can view NBC’s collections in our online teacher portal and let us know what types of books/topics their students enjoy. Teachers are also invited to give ongoing input throughout the partnership as student needs/interests change so that we can best match students with their new books.

Reader-to-Reader Cards

We know the value that comes from kids connecting with other kids. In addition to having characters and experiences our readers can identify, each NBC book includes a message from another elementary student reader in Nashville.

“I love reading because I feel calm when I’m doing it.”
“Reading is important to me because it gives knowledge and that needs to be shared.”
“I hope you enjoy this book!”

Interactive Student Bookmarks

We know the value of students knowing their opinion matters. Student agency and voice are central to the NBC model. Our interactive bookmarks allow us to know what students think of their NBC books, what book requests they may have, and if they shared their reading experience with a family member or friend.

Measuring Impact

We measure impact as best we can. Each book has an interactive feedback bookmark inside. We ask students to return their bookmarks once they have had some time with their books. This information allows us to not only determine which books are successful with students but also which students are engaged by the feedback process.

Next Steps

We are always working to gather additional data to better understand what home readership looks like and to what extent NBC's pilot has moved the needle--at home and at school. Through building relationships with faculty, staff and students, we learn volumes from each school partnership.