To celebrate International Literacy Day, we reunited with our longstanding partner, Worldreader, to help promote literacy and the joy of reading around the world. With every book purchased on our website, we donated $1 to Worldreader, up to $10K.
Worldreader works to champion digital reading, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This year, International Literacy Day was celebrated under the theme, “Literacy for a human-centered recovery: Narrowing the Digital Divide.” As we saw the way we move in an even more digital direction due to COVID-19, we find it necessary to provide children with digital access to books as the world adapts.
Since 2010, we have donated hundreds of thousands of e-books to Worldreader to help millions of children read around the world. We are committed to advancing literacy, especially in communities where there are not many books available. Together, Penguin Random House and Worldreader help create a world where everyone is a reader.
DK donated 1,000 copies of the illustrated children’s book Life Cycles: Everything from Start to Finish to Manchester United Foundation. The books were distributed to underprivileged children and families in the Manchester region for Christmas as part of the foundation’s “Santa’s Red Helpers Campaign” in charity packs compiled by the British football club’s foundation.
The foundation of the first league football club is committed to supporting underprivileged children and youth. Players, staff and fans of the traditional club united to make a difference as Santa’s Red Helpers in order to bring some joy to these families.
Rebecca Smart, Managing Director, Publishing, at DK, said: “We are proud to support Manchester United Foundation and the families they work with by donating books for their Christmas gift bags. We are passionate about inspiring curiosity and bringing people to books, and we hope that our donation will have a positive impact on these children’s lives.”
Matt Johnson, Operations Director at Manchester United Foundation, expressed his gratitude for the support and book donation: “It is so important for young people to understand the importance of education and reading.”
In honor of National Read Aloud Day on November 20, 2020, Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe gave more than 1,000 audiobooks and books to schools, kindergartens and children’s daycare centers featuring celebrities, authors and employees, available through the end of the year on the campaign webpage. Rather than in-person visits, children celebrated Read Aloud Day with special book packages personalized with greetings from PRH Verlagsgruppe employees.
“We look forward to being able to meet children face-to-face on Read Aloud Day 2021 again. Reading aloud and telling stories, listening, questions and discussions need closeness. However, we are happy and thankful that we have the technological possibilities to bring stories to homes and classrooms this year,” said Thomas Rathnow, CEO Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe.
“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the children and teachers at our school for the wonderful books you kindly gave to us. The first children who were able to peek into the book package were absolutely delighted and did not want to stop reading,” said Anika Lürssen, Vice Principal of the catholic primary school St. Mauritius in Cologne.
The Penguin Hotline, a resource to help consumers everywhere find the right books for people on their holiday gift lists, launched for the seventh year in a row on December 2, 2020. This year, we are excited to donate $2 to longtime partner We Need Diverse Books for every request received from December 2-16.
The hotline is run by hundreds of PRH U.S. employee volunteers across departments and divisions who craft thoughtful and customized book recommendations. Each year, countless satisfied Hotline users express their appreciation of the “human touch” that strengthens this experience and makes it so special.
We Need Diverse Books is focused on putting more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children. The partnership with the Penguin Hotline this year gives both volunteers and consumers another great reason to participate and spread the word.
In celebration of National Family Literacy Month this November, we teamed up with online retailer zulily to provide books to children in need across the U.S. As part of zulily’s sixth annual holiday giving “Books for Kids Buy 1, Give 1” campaign, each Penguin Random House book purchased will trigger a donation – up to 75,000 books – to longtime partner First Book. The largest and fastest-growing network of educators in the United States exclusively serving kids in need, First Book is a nonprofit organization that aims to remove barriers to quality education for all kids by making new books, educational materials and other essentials affordable to its member network of more than 500,000 educators. We’re proud to partner with Zulily to provide children with the gift of reading this holiday season.
Since 1997, we have partnered with Read Ahead in New York City to match public school students with Penguin Random House employee volunteers for one-on-one mentorship. Read Ahead is dedicated to helping students unlock their full potential through mentoring relationships, fostering the social and emotional skills that are essential for academic and life-long success. Penguin Random House volunteers offer one-on-one support to NYC public school mentees in grades K-5 throughout the school year, helping them develop their love of reading, confidence, and skills to thrive in school and beyond.
Starting in 2020, we expanded the program to all of our U.S. employees through a virtual mentorship program hosted on Zoom. We’re honored to continue our partnership with Read Ahead and provide their students with engaged Penguin Random House mentors from across the country.
As part of our 2020 holiday campaign, Books Give More, we’ll donate one book to longtime partner We Need Diverse Books for every book purchased on penguinrandomhouse.com from October 20, 2020 through Giving Tuesday (December 1, 2020). During these unprecedented times, books are more important than ever, providing safe and accessible entertainment, and promoting a deeper understanding of the issues facing our community and country. Through our partnership with We Need Diverse Books this holiday season, we’ll be able to put more books into the hands of all children in economically disadvantaged schools around the country, helping to address the literacy gap that affects marginalized youth by giving children stories and authors they can relate to.
Penguin Random House U.S. is proud to partner with We Need Diverse Books for ongoing programs like our annual Creative Writing Awards.
Throughout the year, the Dodgers Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program typically hosts Dodger Days as community-based resource fairs at local parks for thousands of kids and their families in Southern California. In response to COVID-19, the new “drive-thru” series is an adjustment from its in-person format. The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) conducted a needs assessment with the Dodgers RBI families, their youth development program for 5 to 18-year-olds. Of the youth currently enrolled in this program, 25% have household incomes below $20,000 annually. Through this assessment, they found that the majority of families indicated lack of access to books as a barrier to distance learning.
The LADF hosted five drive-thru events in June, providing over $480,000 in food boxes, exercise and fitness resources, softball and baseball equipment, books, and educational support to feed families and help youth stay active and healthy.
Penguin Random House donated 500 books that were given away to attending families for their children.
Through the LADF, the Dodgers have been providing critical donations to support the local COVID-19 relief efforts that will hopefully uplift significantly impacted Angelenos, including the most vulnerable populations. In 2017, PRH also partnered with the L.A. Dodgers and LADF on their joint initiative, LA Reads, to help address the literacy crisis in Los Angeles, by getting children excited about reading, with a special event at the Los Angeles Central Library.
Since 2010, Penguin Random House has donated more than 550,000 digital books to Worldreader to help children read in underserved schools across Sub-Saharan Africa. To celebrate International Literacy Day in 2020, we encouraged our readers to help bring more books to children. With every book purchased on our website, we donated $1 to Worldreader.
In these pictures, a classroom full of students in Kibera, Kenya eagerly reads. In their hands they’re holding a library of thousands of books – including lots of favorite Penguin Random House books. The ability to read and learn gives these students a chance to improve their lives. And that ripples through to their families and their communities. As Worldreader’s largest global publishing partner, we are proud to help advance literacy around the world. We have donated hundreds of licenses for Worldreader e-reader programs in sub-Saharan Africa, linking literature of all reading levels and age groups to schools and libraries throughout the region.
We proudly partner with Worldreader to help create a world where everyone is a reader.
Penguin Random House’s donation of 750,000 books to First Book as part of READ TOGETHER, BE TOGETHER is featured on CNN International’s “Impact Your World” series. This special series showcases how companies around the world are giving back during the COVID-19 crisis.
This donation is one of the many ways Penguin Random House is helping communities affected by the pandemic. To meet the urgent need expressed by educators coping with school closures as a result of COVID-19, the donated books will be sent to programs and schools that are currently delivering books, food, and supplies to our youngest citizens who are isolated and locked out of a learning environment.
See the video on CNN here.
