Bookmobile News

At the Free Bookmobile of Sonoma County, we love to talk about leveraging resources. We leverage books that are sitting idle into gifts for the community, gifts that educate, inspire and include. The good folks out at Sonoma Raceway know a thing about leverage, too. They put their resource, one of the most exciting racetracks in the country, to great use between competitions to raise money for children’s charities! If you are a fan or just like to be around high-octane thrills, please check out their full schedule of activities for 2018 by clicking here. You can bring out your vehicle for some drag racing, attend a pre-event banquet, or even bid for a “Ride of a Lifetime” experience with a top IndyCar driver! All proceeds benefit local programs like ours.

We are honored to once again be a part of their grantee family. Their support means more children will receive magical visits from the Free Bookmobile throughout 2018, and will get to come on board to choose great books to take home and keep as long as they want! Though we emphasize early outreach that makes the most overall impact, we make sure that kids of ALL ages are included, from preschool all the way up through high school. And each year we grow our book donation relationships, meaning the books we offer just get better and better.

Big huge thanks to Speedway Children’s Charities for making use of Sonoma Raceway in a way that benefits the entire community!

When we started giving away books to people throughout Sonoma County, some said it was a quaint idea. They said that books were a dying artifact of the pre-digital age, and that kids wouldn’t be interested. We’re glad we didn’t listen! Because it turned out that not only do children still love to read books printed on real paper, but they love to be read to by their family members. And it’s a good thing, because these activities turn out to be crucially important in the development of language centers in young brains.

Community Foundation of Sonoma County, in partnership with the Cradle to Career coalition, is at the front in supporting our local families’ early reading habits. One of their simplest yet most important programs is iREAD, the promotion of reading in the home to young children. The Free Bookmobile is delighted to have earned renewal of grant funding to continue our work in supplying the books these families will need, especially low-income, rural, and otherwise access-challenged families, as well as education and encouragement. We had a great first year on the job and look forward to expanding our reach in 2018, serving 0 – 5 year-olds throughout the region, including dedicated visits to AVANCE Parenting Classes and Pasitos playgroups for young families who are primarily Spanish-speaking.

Reading to a child in your life is one of the most important things you can do to help them enter kindergarten ready to learn and succeed in school!

As a parent or family member you can:

• READ TO YOUR CHILD EVERY DAY.  Just fifteen minutes a day makes a huge difference in your child’s language development, and helps them be ready to learn in school.
• READ FROM DAY ONE.  The first eight months of a baby’s life is a peak period for language development.
• READ IN ANY LANGUAGE–Or use the book to tell a story in your home language.
• READ EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, from street signs to cereal boxes.
• NARRATE YOUR DAY: Talk with your child while you’re doing activities together.
• ANYONE CAN READ TO CHILDREN: Older siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents.