Our Mission
Children’s Literary and Education
When children have access to books, their lives change in many ways. They are able to view the world from new perspectives, connect with characters, and explore topics of interest. In order to foster the skills to become a reader, students need access to developmentally appropriate and engaging literature.
Giving children the power to choose what they read is critical. When students are given the opportunity to pick out a book of their very own, they are absolutely ecstatic! We want as many children as possible to have this experience: Their futures are depending on it.
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Free Books for Kids Town
Founder and Director Ruby Wiles
Born in a military hospital in San Antonio while her dad was in the Air Force, Free Books for Kids Town Founder and Director Ruby Wiles spent her early childhood in East Brady, Pa., the home of Jim Kelly, with whom her cousins played football. Her family moved to Warren, Pa., when she was 9.
After graduating from Warren Area High School, Ruby left her small town to see the world – attending the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, working at a church camp in Southern California, then developing church ministries in Seattle and attending seminary in Berkeley, California, and Washington, D.C. She served her first call as a Lutheran pastor in rural North Dakota. From there it was off to serve in The Bronx in New York City, before hearing the call to return to rural Pennsylvania.
Ruby relishes the opportunities and potential of rural America. She has a passion for helping every child, especially rural children, have the opportunity to lead a happy and successful life. For more than a decade she has been learning and developing literacy and education programs at the non-profit she started in 2011, Free Books for Kids Town.
Poverty limits children. While parents are criticized for not being interested in their children’s educational advancement, Ruby has come to understand the stresses of financial limitations. She believes, as she has read: “We deny people the resources (education and experiences) to succeed and then we punish them when they fail. Our country’s gross inequality is a sin against our children.”
“I, too, used to expect parents to step up,” Ruby says. “Now I realize that the neediest children have the neediest parents. Children shouldn’t be punished for their parents’ lack of income or lack of interest.”
Free Books for Kids Town literacy programs are barrier-free, going straight to the children–where they are born, where they go to school, at one of their favorite holidays: Halloween.
How We Started
What would happen in a rural county if all children had access to books they really wanted for free?
That is the question that propelled Free Books for Kids Town in the summer and fall of 2011.
Early that year the New York Times reported on research by Anne McGill Franzen on the importance of choice in children’s literacy. She learned that children who had a choice in the books they received became better readers. This research was reinforced by the work of Dr. Mariah Evans of the University of Nevada at Reno who found that the biggest predictor of a child’s academic success was not their parents’ education or economic status, but the number of books in the home. This was especially true for children from families with fewer financial resources.
Ruby notes, “I have a son who is a voracious reader. Not surprisingly, he grew up with access to all the books he wanted in his home library because his parents knew and appreciated the power of books and book ownership. His friends were not as avid readers—they had much more limited access to books. So I wondered what would happen if books were free for kids in my home county of Warren, Pennsylvania.”
Initially, starting at Warren, Pa.’s downtown Christmas Walk in December, 2011, crates full of donated used books were placed in some ten stores. From that humble beginning, more effective programs were developed to reach the neediest kids.
Through our current programs—Read to Keep, Libraries for Littles, Halloween Read and Treat, and the Interactive Festival—and community events, Free Books for Kids Town gives away thousands of books every year.