Author Archive: Gavin McGuire

My Brown is Beautiful, See it Please (Guest Post)

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Many thanks to Jasmine Villaverde-Mickens, Literacy Program Manager in Education, for this post. First graders at CentroNía’s DC Bilingual Public Charter School made self-portraits — with strokes of a brush, they were tasked to find their skin tone by mixing various colors of paint. “Look at my brown,” one student... Read more

Take THAT Summer Slide! 15,000 Books to Kids in DC

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Recently, we took a hard look at the effects of Summer Slide on children without access to books. We also saw the incredible effects that providing books over the summer, not only to children in general, but to children from low income families specifically, had on reading, comprehension and test... Read more

Lack of Diversity in Kids' Books and How to Fix It

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The lack of diversity in children’s literature is a problem that affects all children, especially children from low-income families, who rarely see themselves, their families or their communities in the stories they read. The problem is real. In a study last year, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center reviewed thousands of... Read more

Kids Who Read Beat Summer Slide

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For kids, few moments in life are more glorious than the end of the school year and the start of summer vacation. Hooray! Three whole months of sweet freedom! But when school’s out, kids from low-income families have a real problem on their hands. Unlike their more affluent peers, most... Read more

Moore, Oklahoma – Our Hearts Are With You

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Yesterday afternoon a massive tornado hit the town of Moore, just outside Oklahoma City. Dozens have been killed, hundreds injured and the town was nearly leveled. This is one of the most destructive tornadoes in the history of the United States and even more destructive weather is possible in the... Read more