Photo by Erin

It’s never too early to start instilling good habits in kids, and that includes a love of reading.

D.C. Public Library will launch the Books From Birth program tomorrow. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, and D.C. Public Library Executive Director Richard Reyes-Gavilan are expected to attend.

Councilmember Allen introduced the early childhood literacy program last year. “Our support for Books From Birth shows we are serious about confronting the District’s literacy and achievement gaps at their starting point, well before those gaps show up in the classroom,” Allen said in a release. “Books are direct building blocks for learning, but children must be exposed to them to use them.”

Once District parents (or legal guardians) sign up for the program, their children who are five years and younger will receive one book each month. DCPL will provide books that are age-appropriate and “reflect a diversity of people and cultures, and that promote self-esteem and a love of reading,” according to the program’s FAQ sheet.

The library doesn’t want the books back when kids are finished, either. If children don’t want to keep the books after reading, they can give them to friends or to strangers using one of the library’s preferred donation methods.

The program will also connect families with other DCPL resources such as adult literacy assistance and the system’s “Sing, Talk, & Read” early literacy program.

The initiative is in partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which has mailed over 60 million books to children in the U.S, Canada, and the United Kingdom.