For more information on why and how we promote early reading and youth literacy, please visit our website www.Chapter2Chapter.org and see why book ownership is so critical to families in need. During his career he's seen too many children flounder in school, lose self-esteem and ultimately drop out of school altogether. He personally understands that pain because he was also failing in school befo
re he was enrolled into The Lakeside School where he received two years of intensive language and speech tutoring to overcome his challenges. Wanting to help children on the front end to prevent them from failing later in life, he researched the causation factors of poor academic achievement. Michael read study after study that definitively concluded that early reading skills and reading at grade level by the end of 3rd grade was the best and most accurate predictor of future educational achievement and the probability of not completing high school. These studies also helped explain why socio-economic disparity plays an oversized role in the academic achievement gap between children from affluent homes and those that are not so fortunate. Low-income homes are commonly 'book deserts' while affluent homes are stuffed with children's books from birth to teenager. This frequently results in children from less well off homes starting Kindergarten with under-developed language skills. This achievement gap continues to grow each summer as they return to a home environment devoid of age appropriate reading material. Michael started this non-profit to change that household condition. He wants to provide books early in the children's lives so that they enter school ready and prepared and that they return after summer break equally prepared as those children from affluent households. To that end, we promote early reading and youth literacy through book ownership and provide, free of charge, age appropriate printed material to families in need.
