Children's Literature for Parenting

We promote family literacy and provide parenting education for teen mothers and fathers through our innovative Children’s Literature for Parenting series.

Young parents are inspired to read to their children through their own developing love of reading, and through these structured workshop sessions. They learn to make books come alive for their children by reading in an interactive style and engaging them in the reading process. We teach them to make reading a joyful, fun experience. Teen parents also learn to use reading as a way to connect with their children and foster their emotional, social and cognitive development.

We give them wonderful children’s books, classics like Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and new favorites such as Homemade Love by bell hooks, to help them build children’s libraries in their own homes.

When You Are Sleeping
by Andrea, age 17

When you are sleeping,
I stay awake to look at you
and protect you from any bad dreams.

When you are sleeping,
I take a look at you and think about
the bright future you will have.

When you are sleeping,
I see you as myself sleeping.
I see you as my everything.
I see you as the person who
is going to change my life forever.

When you are sleeping,
I just cound the minutes that are left
until I see you wake up and smile.

Read more poetry by our young parents >>

Children’s books we are using now…

• I Like Me! by Nancy Carlson
• Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley
• For a Girl Becoming by Joy Harjo
• Happy to Be Nappy by bell hooks
• Sofia and the Heartmender by Marie Olofsdotter
• Clara and Asha by Eric Rohmann
• Your Body Belongs to You by Cornelia Spelman
• Read to Your Bunny by Rosemary Wells