The Bookshop Podcast
The Bookshop Podcast
Empowering Children with the Joy of Book Ownership: A Discussion with Kate Bowersox of Books in Homes USA
Discover the transformative power of book ownership with Kate Bowersox, the passionate Executive Director of Books in Homes USA. In this heartfelt episode, Kate opens up about her personal journey, academic achievements, and her mission to ignite a love for reading among children. She shares touching stories of raising her own kids to cherish books, aligning perfectly with the organization's goal of ensuring every child has the joy of owning books. From her strategic initiatives to her unwavering dedication, Kate reveals how Books in Homes USA is making a significant impact on children's literacy nationwide.
Concerned about the alarmingly low literacy rates across the United States? Learn how Books in Homes USA is addressing this critical issue by providing free books to students in low-income districts. Discover their innovative programs—Books for Ownership, Book Bridge, and Culture of Literacy—that empower children to choose their own books and develop a lifelong love for reading. We also discuss how strategic partnerships, donations, and community support fuel these efforts. Tune in to find out how you can contribute to this noble cause and support The Bookshop Podcast in celebrating the literary community.
Books in Homes USA
Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a bibliophile. Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast. We believe in exceptional writing, stories that educate, ruminate, elevate and celebrate A hub where book lovers discover their next favorite read and connect with a vibrant literary community. Each week, I present interviews with authors, independent bookshop owners and booksellers from around the globe and publishing professionals. When I started this podcast in 2020, my intention was to support indie bookshops and authors and to produce a quality podcast where listeners gain insight to authors' lives and their writing style and chat with booksellers about what they're reading. I chose a format that is enjoyable for me, my guests and my listeners a show without interruptions from advertisers, cutting into conversations With the millions of podcasts out there. Thank you for choosing to listen to the Bookshop Podcast. You clicked on today's episode. I'm here. You're here. My guest is here. All thanks to my team and emails back and forth, researching guests, creating meaningful questions, recording interviews, audio edits, final edits, producing the show and uploading each episode so it magically appears on podcast platforms globally. It took days of work and a team of professionals to bring you this episode. I support creativity that is not marred by conformity, and I'm asking you to do the same To financially support this show, please go to thebookshoppodcastcom. Click on Support the Show and you can donate through Buy Me a Coffee To help the show reach more people. Please share episodes with friends and family and on social media, and remember to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this podcast. Okay, let's get on with the show. You're listening to episode 256.
Speaker 1:Books in Homes USA's primary mission is to inspire a love of reading and foster literary proficiency among all children. They achieve this goal through partnerships with schools and organizations across the nation, providing opportunities that empower students to select and take home new books they can cherish. Books in Homes USA advocates for every child's right to experience the lifelong benefits of book ownership. As the Executive Director of Books in Homes USA, kate Bowersox is committed to providing every child with the opportunity to select and own their very own books. In her role, kate serves as the organization's primary fundraiser, strategist and ambassador, driving initiatives to propel the organization's mission and strategic objectives forward. Hi, kate, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you here thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'm thrilled to be here and I appreciate you having me I'm glad you connected with me via linkedin.
Speaker 1:It's a good platform yes, it is.
Speaker 2:It's a great place to connect and find others in in your area yes, it is indeed.
Speaker 1:Now let's begin with learning about you. You have an MA in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and later worked for the university in different departments before becoming Executive Director of Books in Homes, usa. What led you to this current position?
Speaker 2:So, as you mentioned, you know, I received my degree from the University of Pittsburgh and then I spent 15 years working there. So that was a lot of my professional career before coming to Books and Homes and absolutely loved higher education, loved seeing the students, loved being a part of it. But, you know, I turned 40 a couple of years ago and I began to think you know, what do I really want to do with my life and with my career? And I was involved in fundraising at the University of Pittsburgh and knew I wanted to sort of stick with something like that. But my mother had been the executive director of a small nonprofit, you know, for her entire career. I watched her do that, you know, all of my life and I kind of thought that's probably the direction that feels like a really good fit for me and I wanted a small organization that, you know, my family could really become a part of. It could be sort of our thing.
Speaker 2:And then, aside from that book lover through and through, you know, have loved books all my life. I remember a couple of years ago when it sort of dawned on me my oldest son was reading past his bedtime, like way past his bedtime, and we finally said you know it's time to turn the lights off and keep them off. You know you have to stop and he didn't want to, and as much as I knew he was going to be so tired the next day we were raising a reader. You know it was one of my proudest moments, and so to be able to combine, you know, my skills in fundraising and organizations and then my love of reading and instilling that in my children and ensuring that all children can have that, it was just a natural fit and I'm thrilled to be here.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that story about your son. One of the things that makes me smile and pulls up my heartstrings is when I hear stories of parents reading with their children or reading to their children. And I have a quick story for you. My husband and I have two sons who are now 29 and 32. But when the eldest one was young and he reading, he'd just started. Once he discovered where books could take him, he couldn't put books down. Same with the youngest one.
Speaker 1:But one night I think it must have been about I don't know one o'clock in the morning or something I hear this Mom, mom. I ran into his bedroom thinking God knows what, and he said Mom, what's this word? Is it penny silver? He had his bedside light on and I'm looking and I said you're reading at this time of night. And he showed me the book and I said no, it's Pennsylvania. And he went oh, thanks, mom, I love it.
Speaker 1:I wish I had a dollar for every night that the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne kept him awake. He loved that series and that's what actually got him into reading. When I crawled back into bed, my husband said is he okay? And I said yeah, he was having trouble pronouncing a word and we just kind of giggled and went back to sleep. But I wasn't going to be angry with him in the morning because I just thought you know what we'll deal with the tiredness when it happens. It just made me so excited that he was still reading, that he discovered where stories could take him and that moment was also good for me because it reignited that love of learning in children. Anyway, let's get back to Books in Homes. It has a great history. Can you tell us about it please?
Speaker 2:It does it does so it was founded. Well, books in Homes, usa was founded in 2008. But of course, as you mentioned, we have a history that's really interesting. We are founded and modeled after Duffy Books in Homes in New Zealand, and so Duffy was founded about 30 years ago. They are just getting ready to celebrate their 16 millionth book distribution.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a fantastic milestone.
Speaker 2:Right, which is wonderful, and you know they partner with schools across the country to provide students in those schools the opportunity to select and choose their own book. It was founded by Alan Duff and also with the corporate sponsor Main Freight. Main Freight in New Zealand is where their headquarters. So they were a major sponsor to begin with and helped launch this as Main Freight expanded. The company is truly committed to helping children with literacy. They're launched at books andomes in Australia and when the company branched out to the US helped us establish a Books and Homes here. So they remain a major corporate sponsor. I mean, of course we're separate entities but we have been very fortunate to benefit from their generosity and then maintain really great relationships with Books and Homes in Australia and Daffy Books and Homes in New Zealand, just to you know, to get advice and share ideas and resources. So we're sort of trying to make sure that children everywhere have books.
Speaker 1:How wonderful that you had a model to base Books and Homes USA after. Did you find that helpful?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, and you know it's interesting. It's just a really great relationship because we can model after each other and share ideas. But we're also very different countries with very different, you know, schools, and so it's a really nice way to hear, well, what's working here and what might not work here, but the goal is the same to get books into the hands of children okay, we've covered the goal and the history of books in homes.
Speaker 1:What is the mission of books in homes usa?
Speaker 2:well, the mission in books and homes is to ensure that every child, no matter what their backgrounds or access, has the opportunity to benefit from owning books in childhood, and really we want to promote literacy achievement and also just a lifelong love and enjoyment of reading. And so we know that 30% of homes have fewer than 25 books in them, which for some of us book lovers seems just absolutely mind-boggling. But it's really true. The need is out there, and at the same time, there have been decades of research done on the impact that owning books in your house in childhood has on literacy achievement. I think those with comprehensive libraries are three years ahead in school based on a lot of the research that's been done, and so we need to ensure that everyone can receive those benefits and have access to those books.
Speaker 1:For those of us who grew up with a home library, it's easy for us to forget what a luxury that was. And it's not just about children reading fiction. If you can give them a book of nonfiction that they can look through just flipping the pages, it makes them curious. I really believe that that is part of how and why our sons became curious about reading. Now, over the last four years, I've spoken with over 100 independent bookshop owners and booksellers, and we've often discussed literacy rates in the country where they live. Now.
Speaker 1:There was an article in the National Literacy Institute, which I'll put the link in the show notes, but they shared numbers that shed light on global and USA literacy rates. A couple of numbers that stood out to me regarding the US that I found shocking were 54% of adults have a literacy rate below a 6th grade level and 20% are below 5th grade grade level and 20% are below fifth grade. The US ranks 36th in literacy and three out of five people in American prisons can't read, and 85% of juvenile offenders have problems reading. These statistics are telling about the state of education and society in the United States. Do you use statistics such as these to understand which school districts are in dire need of books?
Speaker 2:Those are shocking numbers. They're staggering, and we do we certainly do use, you know, use these numbers to keep in mind and sort of frame why we do what we do. Because we know that owning books can help with those numbers. It's one tool in the toolbox of helping with literacy For books and homes. We partner with schools that have a 50% or greater student body that come from low income households, based on the free and reduced lunch population. So we know that those are areas where our support could really go a long way, right, and so that's sort of how we frame who we partner with, but certainly keeping those statistics in mind on, you know, areas where we can reach out to schools and say we'd love to have you join this program, which is what we're really trying to do right now expand our reach, let schools know that we're out there and that we want to support them, and those are areas that we look into.
Speaker 1:And do you solely depend on donations, and do the publishing houses support you by donating books?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. So a little bit of both. We mostly rely on donations, but we have really great relationships with some publishers who will offer us deep discounts, who we consider great friends and supporters in their own way to provide books at a really reasonable rate, which is a big way that we come into play so you can partner with us and we can get so many books for such little cost because of these tremendous partnerships. But the books that we do buy do come from donations and the generosity of others.
Speaker 1:And for any listeners who want to donate to Books and Homes USA where do they go and how can they donate?
Speaker 2:Well, I am so glad you asked. On our website we have a donation link. It's booksandhomesusaorg and we have lots of information there. We're starting to grow our crowdfunding program. What we've seen is that when someone is sort of leading the charge and getting invested in those other bookworms who are interested, they might want to host their own fundraiser. We love that. Haven't done a lot of it in the past. Really would welcome it in the future because there's some really creative things that that people can come up with to fundraise.
Speaker 1:but uh, but the donation link is also right out there on our website and is it possible for the bookshop podcast to have a donation link to books in homes, usa on our website?
Speaker 2:absolutely so. There's a couple of ways. Yes, that is one great method, just, you know, sort of do, do it on your own and reach out, and we would love that. We also are about to launch some modules where there are online crowdfunding campaigns. So, for those who want to reach out to their friends and you know in other locations and say I'm supporting this, I would like you to also, we can help you create your own sort of fundraising website and page, and that's a, like I said, that's a pretty new thing that we're just starting, but anyone can reach out if they'd like a more, you know, a more guided way to do some fundraising.
Speaker 1:Well, let's you, and I talk about this later, because I would love to be involved with this program.
Speaker 2:Oh, wonderful, thank you.
Speaker 1:Books in Homes. Usa offers multiple programs Books for Ownership, book Bridge and Culture of Literacy. Can you tell us a little bit about each program?
Speaker 2:I'd be happy to. Yes, so our Books for Ownership is really sort of our Books in Homes program. Right, that's the main program and what we do and throughout that program is where we partner with the schools again across the US and underserved communities and we really do basically free book fairs for those schools. The unique thing is is that every school chooses a different way to host their book giveaway programs. Some do it in a big school-wide assembly. Some have students choose their free books when they go, you know, to their libraries. I recently was at a school where they pushed a cart, you know, door to door to each classroom and let the students slush that way. But that's our sort of big celebratory event. Books are wonderful. Here are at least two books for you to choose and take home and enjoy, and so that's our model, our model program, which we really love. I should note that we really believe choosing your own book is important and there's research to back that up. Not only is it a feel good thing and it gives children agency and excitement, but we also know those books tend to be read more and enjoyed more because the child chose it themselves. And so when we partner with a school and our books for ownership, such books and homes program. We work with the school to find out more about their student body, what types of books would be helpful, and we help curate a huge selection and so when the books come, the students can choose from anything in there. But there's a lot of variety. You know graphic novels all different age age levels, reading levels, nonfiction, fiction you know you name it and a lot of the popular ones that I'm sure that we can all sort of suspect that we got a lot of dog man out there and you know and and um, but something for everyone. So that's our, that's our books and homes program.
Speaker 2:Our book bridge program is getting up and running. I started in in January of this year and you see, a real opportunity to just sort of celebrate reading and celebrate children's literature and what a great place to do it and Books at Homes. We're trying to raise the next generation of these bookworms and book lovers and so that's sort of our catch-all program. Do you love books? Great, we want to feature you here. We have an authors and an illustrators corner. I'm just about to post one of our first read-alongs with an author, which was really wonderful. We have resources for educators some lesson plans and the books that would go along with them, and this is really going to be a program that we grow just to celebrate books. We know that the literacy is important and that's our main mission, but sometimes we just need to say here's what you love, books, I love books, here's your place, and activities for kids there too. So that's our book bridge program. And the last one that you asked about is the culture of literacy, and I'm very excited to talk about this.
Speaker 2:In fall of 2023, we received a $3 million grant from the US Department of Education. That grant supports our Culture of Literacy program. Within this program, we have partnered with 14 schools across the US to participate. Participation includes the sort of book fairs that I talked about, these book distribution events. There's a few a year at each school, but in addition to those events, we are also hosting a professional development cohort for literacy specialists at each school. We are providing classroom books for teachers, we're providing books for their libraries, and then each child at those schools will receive two thematic books a year in which lesson plans and activities are included, with an emphasis on family. So we will send those. The schools will send those pieces of information to families where they can work through that together. The first one was on weather questions about weather, activities about weather that families can do together to really sort of build that culture of literacy throughout.
Speaker 1:It's wonderful the Department of Education is supporting Books in Homes. Usa. You must have one heck of a grant writer, is that you?
Speaker 2:That happened. I can take no credit for that that happened before I started but truly it was transformative for the organization.
Speaker 1:Donations like that give me hope.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:Exactly, Kate. What is the Books for Ownership grant application and who can apply?
Speaker 2:That is to become a partner school, right? So we are just in the process of opening up applications for the 2024-2025 school year. Anyone can go on our website and apply. I think the application is actually open, but we'll be doing a sort of you know, a promotional push for that soon, and really it's mostly Title I schools, right? So Title I schools, or schools that have a student population of 50% or more free and reduced lunch, can go on and apply to be a partner school, and with that, you know, we need to know how many students are enrolled and what grades, and then we will work to seek funding to support your school once you apply.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a great program. I recently had author Emiko Jean on the show, and she writes YA and adult novels. One of the topics she spoke about was that when she was younger, she never saw herself reflected in books. Emiko is Japanese, American and that's one of the reasons she writes because she wanted to see cultural diversity on bookshelves. With this in mind, does Books in Homes USA offer to children books in other languages?
Speaker 2:I'm glad you asked. That's a huge priority. That's a huge priority for us. We do distribute books in other languages. That is where we come in to work with the schools. And what does your student body look like? Right? If you have a lot of English language learners, let us know their home language. We'll make sure we get you books in that way. We do offer books that are written bilingual. You know one page in one language, another page in the other language. We want to increase that right. We want to increase the number of books we offer, and then we also are really committed to finding books that do represent every child. So, whether it's the pictures in the book, the stories that they're talking about, diversity is always at the top of our minds. And, again, we work with the schools to ensure that the books that we provide for their special event is really reflective of their student body.
Speaker 1:And is it mostly elementary age children you give books to.
Speaker 2:Mostly so it depends. It depends on the school. You know, if it's a K through eight school, we do a K through eight distribution. You know, if it's K through four, that's what we'll do, but it is usually elementary.
Speaker 1:We've partnered with a couple of middle schools, but mostly we work in that elementary area. You've spoken about how someone like me with the Bookshop podcast can get involved with Books in Homes. Are there any other ways people can be involved with Books in Homes USA?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely so. We want to connect with anyone and everyone truly, because everyone has a special way to get involved and a reason for getting involved. But some things that we're looking to start, or in the beginning stages of, are doing guest readings. Right, anyone can read a book and our schools are really interested in that. Certainly, authors, children's book authors reach out. We would love to promote your book and have you do a reading. Maybe not even fundraising events, but helping us volunteer at some of the book giveaway programs. We are always looking for corporate sponsors, so that's another little bit on the fundraising side, but those relationships are really special because representatives from the company can come out, meet the students and help participate in those events. So lots of ways to get involved. We could use volunteers for anything and everything. If you're a writer or a marker, we would love to have you donate your talents and support us, because we're a small but mighty team. There's just two of us and so anything to stretch our reach would be helpful With all this talk about books.
Speaker 1:I would like to know what you're reading.
Speaker 2:Well, reading too, I always. I'm generally listening, listening to a book and reading a book. And I have to listen to a book that I'm really interested in because I do it while I'm exercising and it keeps me motivated. But right now I'm just finishing up the Women by Kristen Hanna, which you know anyone who's read it? No, it's just so powerful and because it's so powerful and pretty deep, I'm balancing that out with a really lighthearted romantic comedy. It's called Happy Medium by Sarah Adler. This is this is her sophomore novel. It's only her second book, but she's hilarious and it's very light and fun. That's been enjoyable. But she's hilarious and it's very light and fun. That's been enjoyable.
Speaker 1:Reading light romance is like a tonic for me. I recently bought a copy of Caleb Carr's new book. Sadly, he died in May of this year and Caleb Carr was the author of the Alieness, the Angel of Darkness, the Italian Secretary, and his final book was titled my Beloved Monster, masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat who Rescued Me. So that's what I'm reading now and thoroughly enjoying the story. Kate, it has been lovely chatting with you and thank you for all you do to get books in the homes of all children in the United States. It is appreciated, and thanks for being a guest on the Bookshop podcast.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I am thrilled to have been here and thank you for having me. We appreciate it.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to my conversation with Kate Bowersox, executive Director of Books in Homes, usa. To help the show reach more people, please share episodes with friends and family and on social media, and remember to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this podcast. To find out more about the Bookshop Podcast, go to thebookshoppodcastcom and make sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to the show. You can also follow me at Mandy Jackson Beverly on X, instagram and Facebook and on YouTube at the Bookshop Podcast. If you have a favorite indie bookshop that you'd like to suggest we have on the podcast, I'd love to hear from you via the contact form at thebookshoppodcastcom. The Bookshop Podcast is written and produced by me, mandy Jackson-Beverly, theme music provided by Brian Beverly, executive assistant to Mandy, adrian Otterhan, and graphic design by Frances Farala. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time. Thank you.