The Book Fairy Pantry Project Flies With Kindred World

Listen to Pam Leo share her passionate insights into the Book Fairy Pantry Project and its grassroots literacy mission to ensure all children have access to books – and the lifelong literacy and bonding they make possible.  Read the transcript here.  Visit the Book Fairy Pantry Project’s website and follow the Book Fairy on Facebook. Read Pam Leo’s Book Fairy poetry and Connection Parenting articles on Kindred.

“Illiteracy is a disease of poverty.
The way out of poverty is literacy.
The currency of literacy is children’s books.”

—Pam Leo

The Book Fairy Pantry Project Flies With Kindred World

Kindred World is proud to announce the creation of a new nonprofit initiative to our family, the Book Fairy Pantry Project.  The new initiative is a local grassroots literacy project founded by Pam Leo, author of the classic book, Connection Parenting, as well as new poetry and a future book advocating for the relationship between literacy, bonding and lifelong wellness.

meme-pamleo-1“The BFPP is a holistic model for advancing child wellness because, one, it is born from the heart of Pam Leo, and two, because it is a rare project with a multi-level view that can Solve for Pattern myriad challenges at-risk families face, including access to books and opportunities for crucial bonding,” said Lisa Reagan, FCL co-founded and Kindred’s editor.

“One of the reasons that I am thrilled that the Book Fairy Pantry Project has become a FCL initiative is that our working together validates, and shines a light on the bonding and connection that happens when we read to babies and young children. This aspect of literacy has not received the attention it merits and now it will by association and intention,” said Leo.  “This project is about changing the conditions (children with no books) causing the illiteracy denying children their human right to learn to read in a culture where only the children with books can read, and only the children who can read can thrive.”

Currently in America:

☆ One child in four in the U.S. does not learn to read.
☆ The number one indicator that children will be ready to learn to read when they arrive at school
is age appropriate children’s books in their home and being read to daily from birth on.
☆ ⅔ of the 15.5 million children living in poverty in the U.S. do not have even one book to call their own.
☆ There is no shortage of gently used, quality books in this country, only a shortage of redistribution of these books.

The BFPP was made possible through a generous grant and collaborative partnership between FCL and the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children, aTLC.

“The Alliance is delighted to support a pioneering project that deepens the bonds between parent and child. Sitting together, sharing pictures and reading simple words helps transform the lives of children and families by deepening connections and inspiring learning,” said Kent Petersen, MD, president of aTLC.  “Lives are transformed by daily opportunities to connect, share and inspire.”

“Primary attachment is the most stabilizing factor for young children. Sitting together reading is a profound and productive way to give children attention and stability, creating a solid foundation to build a solid future,” said John Travis, MD, MPH, co-founder of aTLC and author of The Wellness Workbook. “Reading together creates a full body experience of a story. And it¹s also then a shared story rather than a one-sided projection from a screen. This is the kind of transformation we need in today¹s electronic world.”

“This important project fosters the profound literacy of connection. Sharing pictures, stories and words is far better than a thousand videos. We are proud to sponsor Pam’s pioneering work that can deepen family connection and support the child in each of us.”

“FCL is thrilled to sponsor Pam Leo and the Book Fairy among our family of initiatives,” said Lisa Reagan, co-founded of FCL and Kindred’s editor.  “The hurdles to conscious parenting in America are real, with families lacking paid parental leave and support for healthy birth and breastfeeding compared to their counterparts in all over developed countries.  Pam’s brilliant and compassionate insight is born of her heart wisdom and decades of hands-on experience bringing conscious parenting to at-risk families.  We are grateful to her for her genius and to aTLC for their generosity.”

The Book Fairy Pantry Project is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Chilton Pearce, who passed on August 23, 2016. (Read Kindred’s tribute to Joe here.)

“It is with great admiration, appreciation, and affection that I pay tribute to our most esteemed Joseph Chilton Pearce,” said Leo. “If humanity has had a champion these last ninety years, it has been Joe. Joe raised us all up. Joe has long been our leader in the field of human development, and he leaves behind many, many men and women with the conviction and will to carry on.”

Pam Leo is a family literacy activist, the author of the award-winning Connection Parenting, and a new poem, and future children’s book, Please Read To Me. Pam has worked with children and families for more than forty years. From her work with teen parents, parents in prison, parents in recovery, and low income parents, she learned that all parents want very much to provide for their own children. She has “never met a parent who didn’t want life to be better for their children than it was for them.”  Her enduring love of children’s’  books, her passion for literacy, and her commitment to empowering parents, are combined in her new role as the founder the Book Fairy Pantry Project,  whose mission is “No Child With No Books” – because”Books change children’s lives…for good.”

Pam Leo will join the FCL board of directors in 2017 and has served on the International Editorial Advisory Board for Kindred since 2008.

Families for Conscious Living is a 20 year-old, 501C3 nonprofit educational organization “Believing In The Re-Generation Since 1996!”  Kindred Media is alternative media project of FCL.  Visit our website to learn of the many initiatives and visionaries we support to meet the needs of families who are making holistic, compassionate and sustainable choices for conscious living.

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