How It Works

• You Donate Books
• We sanitize and gift wrap books as special gifts for little ones at Magic Wrapping Parties hosted by volunteers and sponsors.
• We pass the books along to local social service agencies who are already connected to many kids who need books.
• Erm the Book Worm and Erma the Book Worma, our mascots, give away books as "Magical Gifts".
• Kids and tots have a blast and create positive associations with books at our Magic Book Parties."

How It All Started

During an interview with a school teacher about a school book drive in Charlottesville, Virginia the teacher flipped the script and asked a simple show stopping question.

"How many books did you have when you were growing up?"

"I don't know, like a hundred?"

"These kids have 3 or 4. How interested do you think they are in learning?"

This conversation was the spark that inspired Promising Pages.

Why We Need It

Fact: 60 percent of America's prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems. (U.S. Department of Education)

Fact: 25 to 40 percent of American children have difficulty in school because they don't read well enough, quickly enough, or easily enough. (Committee on Preventing Reading Difficulties, National Research Council, 1998)

Fact: Disadvantaged students in the first grade have a vocabulary that is approximately half that of an advantaged student (2,900 and 5,800 respectively). (Graves, 1986 / White, Graves & Slater, 1990)