Reading is doctor-recommended

What's New

Join the Summer of a Million Books Campaign! From June 21 to September 6, Reach Out and Read's brand new campaign will give one million children across the country brand-new, age-appropriate books! 

Click here for more information on how you can participate in Summer of a Million Books!

Our Mission

Reach Out and Read prepares America's youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together.

Families served by Reach Out and Read read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills, better prepared to achieve their potential

Doctors, nurse practitioners, and other medical professionals incorporate Reach Out and Read’s evidence-based model into regular pediatric checkups, by advising parents about the importance of reading aloud and giving developmentally-appropriate books to children.  The program begins at the 6-month checkup and continues through age 5, with a special emphasis on children growing up in low-income communities.

Unlike traditional childhood literacy programs, the objective of the ROR model is to deliver specialized early literacy counseling and support. ROR achieves this by taking advantage of the unique access that pediatric primary care providers have to children while they are in their critical years of cognitive and language development - six months through five years old. Three program components complement and reinforce one another:

• At each well-child visit from six months through five years, children receive a new, developmentally and culturally appropriate children's book from medical providers. By the time they begin school, children acquire a home library of at least 10 beautiful children's books.
• In the examination room, physicians and nurse practitioners offer parents tips and age-appropriate advice about the importance of reading with their young children, including materials to take home.
• Volunteers read stories and look at books with children in clinic waiting rooms, thereby modeling for the parents reading aloud techniques.

Reach Out and Read-Alabama is an early literary program of the Alabama Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, affiliated with the Reach Out and Read National Center.