Charnaie Gordon reads a lot of books with her 6-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. Those books are about people from different countries with different backgrounds and cultures. She hopes her children can see into the world of others from books.
One day, the family realised that they couldn't keep all the books. Then they donated some to the local library. Later, the daughter learned that some families didn't have enough money to buy kid books. Then she had an idea: They could give the books to kids who needed them.
In August 2018, the family started a project—50States, 50 Books. They decided to donate 50 different kinds of children's books to each state of the country.
In the beginning, Gordon didn't know what to expect. But a week after she put the project on her blog, book donations began arriving in the mail. By November, her family had collected more than 700books. A publisher sent 800more. With that donation, they could send 50 books to 30 states. Six months later, a final donation, from author Minh Le and his wife, got the family to their goal of 2, 500 books. Then Gordon mailed the books to schools, libraries and families that needed them.
Because of this challenge, many kids can read books for free. Gordon says it's important for kids to read lots of books since it can help kids understand what they can do and be whatever they want to be.
Now that she has finished her 50 States, 50Books challenge, Gordon is beginning another one.