Books, Basketball and a Philly Health Hero: Reach Out and Read
Reach Out and Read, a national organization founded in 1991, focuses on increasing childhood literacy by delivering books to families at pediatric primary care appointments in order to improve outcomes throughout the lifespan. About 80% of brain development occurs in the first three years of life. Being read to by a caregiver is a critical way that children develop literacy and life skills ranging from sound- and letter-recognition to empathy. Numerous studies show that families who receive books and education through Reach Out and Read are more likely to read to their children on a regular basis.
“The strongest predictor of high school graduation is a child’s fourth-grade reading level, but the strongest predictor of that is their vocabulary at 3 years of age,” notes Hans Kersten, MD, professor of pediatrics at the College of Medicine. “Around 40% of children are not prepared for kindergarten and 75% do not make significant improvement by fourth grade. So, what I love about Reach Out and Read is that it is really focused on child development since birth.”
Since its inception, Reach Out and Read has grown to more than 7,000 sites nationwide, including the one at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, which was founded in 2001 by Kersten and Daniel Taylor, DO, associate professor of pediatrics. At St. Chris, pediatricians enter every primary care appointment — and some specialty ones — with a developmentally and culturally appropriate book for the patient to take home. Physicians also take time to explain to caregivers why reading to children from birth is critical to their development and future success.
Kersten says, “Reach Out and Read is one of the most enjoyable things we get to do as pediatric providers. Children’s faces light up when they get a book, and it really serves as a conversation starter about literacy. Due to its simplicity and impact, it is one of the most evidence-based and cost-effective things we get to do.”
Taylor agrees, adding, “As a pediatrician working in this population, walking into the exam room and not carrying a book, not talking about early brain development, it’s like you’re not bringing in a stethoscope or an otoscope. The books and the message are that important.” Providers may also demonstrate how to read to a child, including ways that adults struggling with literacy can still use books to verbally engage with children in order to foster cognitive development.
Support Reach Out and Read
The 2025 Reach Out and Read Basketball Tournament will be held on October 25. Anyone who is interested in playing, volunteering or donating to the tournament is encouraged to participate! Volunteers are also needed at the hospital to support the program. More information about how to get involved is available at www.rorstchris.org.
When it was founded, the Philadelphia Reach Out and Read program received seed funding from the national organization, and since then Kersten and Taylor have been working to keep it afloat with the help of dedicated colleagues and community members. In the early days, they tried a number of fundraising avenues, including book drives, walkathons and dinners, and they sometimes struggled. However, 11 years ago, they hosted their first basketball tournament at Germantown Friends School, where Taylor is alum. The idea arose when the two were playing their regular morning pickup game at the school and Kersten mentioned the program to another player, who used to be a coach at Germantown Friends. He suggested a basketball tournament, and since then, the event has grown from raising $7,000 in 2014 to around $160,000 in 2024. To date the organization has raised more than $1 million.
The program now has sufficient resources to deliver about 80,000 books per year. In addition to expanding the book hand-out program to include specialty appointments, books are now made available to children from birth through 18 years old. The book selection includes works featuring characters who mirror the racially and ethnically diverse population served by the hospital, and features books in 20 different languages. Taylor recalls the feeling of being able to hand a book in Arabic to a young Palestinian refugee for her 2-month-old daughter. “It’s a message of welcoming: ‘We may not represent what you are, your identity. But we represent a welcoming environment, and we have love for your kid,’” he says.
St. Chris is now home to a Situational Book Corner that offers patients and their families access to stories relevant to particular life experiences. There are books covering a range of topics, including grief, parental incarceration, adoption and foster care, gender identity and sexuality, and nontraditional families.
The team also partnered with volunteer reading specialists at St. Chris to build a Reading Room in their clinic, where the volunteers give out books and read to children, and there is space for anyone to sit down and read. Their goal is to increase the number of volunteers in the Reading Room, and they are even exploring the idea of building a library in the main hospital where volunteers, community partners, parents and children can gather in a space to relax and learn. “We view this as an opportunity to spread our work across the whole enterprise,” says Kersten.
In November, the Philadelphia Reach Out and Read program received $15,000 from Philadelphia magazine when Taylor was named the 2024 BeWellPhilly Health Hero. He was nominated by a friend, an educator with an understanding of the importance of childhood literacy. From an initial field of 171 entrants, Taylor made it to the top 10 candidates and then the top three finalists, thanks to daily votes online from people who share his passion for providing books to children from under-resourced areas like the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhoods served by St. Chris.
At an event on November 13, Taylor learned he had won. He and the other finalists made speeches about the causes they care about, and Taylor was presented with a check symbolizing his award, which has already been used to buy 5,000 additional books for Reach Out and Read. Taylor was honored by the recognition, but humble in the face of the sheer number of people involved in Reach Out and Read’s ongoing success. “I just happen to be the one who was nominated. But it’s not about what I do. It’s about what everyone involved does, and that’s what made this really special,” he says.
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