Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

Tree House Books and First Book Philadelphia Partner for "Words on Wheels"

Remember our Philadelphia READS Community Night event in partnership with the Penn Museum? Well, we just found out two of the literacy organizations who attended, Tree House Books and First Book Philadelphia, made plans to join forces that very night!

The two have partnered on the Words on Wheels initiative, which is a door-to-door book delivery service designed to combat reading progress losses typically seen over summer vacations—AKA the "summer slip." "Research tells us that just as a result of children having books in their homes they increase their reading proficiency by one grade level," says Vashti Du Bois, Executive Director of Tree House Books.

The idea for the program originated with Tree House Books, and their initial plan was to deliver as many gently used books as they could this summer. But after meeting First Book Philadelphia, now they'll be able to give away 2,000 brand new books to area residents in need!

You can learn more about Words on Wheels and some of the Temple University students who cycle the city delivering the books in a Temple news article here.

Remember our Philadelphia READS Community Night event in partnership with the Penn Museum? Well, we just found out two of the literacy organizations who attended, Tree House Books and First Book Philadelphia, made plans to join forces that very night!