What is Books for Boys?

It began with a cardboard box stacked with books, and it is now a flourishing, innovative literacy program empowering boys through storytelling. The program, Books for Boys, was founded by LitLife Executive Director Pam Allyn in 1999 at The Children’s Village, a residential treatment center and school for at-risk boys ages 6-21.

The boys of The Children’s Village are among the most vulnerable children in American society: many have traveled through years of hardship in New York’s foster care system; all have stories of loss and suffering. Watching the boys laugh for the first time as they read Clifford, or weep over The Chronicles of Narnia, Pam’s goal became to see all the boys at The Children’s Village with books in their hands, finding comfort in the stories of the world and in the rhythm of a poem.

In a profile with Amherst Magazine, Pam Allyn compared the Books for Boys library to a secret garden: “It comes alive day after day for these kids.” The boys of Children’s Village have traditionally been excluded from the culture of literacy: one boy, thought unable to read, simply needed a pair of reading glasses. Books for Boys reverses that exclusion, and helps the boys use stories to realize their own vast potential.

Today, Books for Boys has grown to serve over 300 boys each year, bringing them programs including author visits, bedtime readers, birthday books and a Books for Boys library for all the boys on campus. Some of the boys also read to the elderly at a nearby senior center. LitLife staff has led parent workshops, consulted on library development and worked alongside the children in their classrooms and cottages to create a replicable model of a program that reaches all children. LitLife Team Leaders’ latest initiative is FLY: Foundations for Literate Youth, an offshoot of Books For Boys, which provides intensive one-on-one tutoring to the boys at The Children’s Village. The program was awarded the James Patterson PageTurner Award in 2005 and 2006. It was selected from 1,500 nominations as one of 34 award winners for its work in helping boys “feel like a part of a world of words, feel sustained by the power and pleasures of story, and become lifelong readers and writers.”

The LitLife teaching and student community has also contributed to Books for Boys in many important ways. You have led book drives to contribute to the libraries on campus; you have volunteered your time to tutor a boy or to read to him. Thank you for your time and dedication!

Please contact Pam at contactpam@litlifeinfo.com for more information on how you can be part of the work of Books for Boys.