Our purpose is simple — to increase the number of books in the homes of San Francisco families. New books are expensive and buying and owning a library of children’s books is not always an option. The Book Wagon puts this goal within reach. The books we share are free, popular with young readers, culturally diverse, multilingual, and appropriate to ages from preschool to sixth grade.
Books are the tools that children need to develop basic language skills, expand their vocabularies, feed their imagination and build self-esteem. Access to books at a young age gives a child a greater chance of achieving a higher level of education down the road. With books in the home, parents are more likely to read to their children and see them reading on their own or with friends and siblings. And when children get to choose their own books, they are more likely to pick them up and read them.