Better Basics partners with the Junior League of Birmingham to inspire all of Birmingham to pick up a book and read. Birmingham Reads is an event held each spring, when hundreds of volunteers visit Kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms in Birmingham City Schools to read to students. Each class is assigned a volunteer reader, and each student receives a book to take home to start, or add to, his or her home library.

The Birmingham Reads Book Drive Challenge offers everyone in the community a chance to provide books to support the Better Basics programs.  Almost 29,000 books were contributed to the 2012 book drive.  Birmingham Reads concludes with a day of fun focused on families and literacy currently held at Colonial Brookwood Village.

Click here to see a photo album of this great event!

Plans for Birmingham Reads 2013 are well underway.  Birmingham Reads Day is scheduled for Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 1 p.m.  For more information or to sign up to read at your favorite Birmingham City elementary school, contact Kathleen Drake at volunteer@betterbasics.org.

Mark your calendars now for April 20, 2013 for Birmingham Reads & Brookwood Celebrates, a fun event for the entire family featuring music, characters, entertainment, and more on the streetscape outside Colonial Brookwood Village. This event will take place from 10:00 a.m until 2 p.m.

Additionally, during the month of April, be a part of the Birmingham Reads Book Drive.  We will be collecting new and gently used children’s books that will be distributed to students through Better Basics’ programs. There’s no better time to do your spring cleaning!  Plan to drop off your books on Friday, April 19, 2013 at Colonial Brookwood Village during the all day book drive with Alabama’s 13, or you can bring them to the Birmingham Reads & Brookwood Celebrates event on Saturday.