Teach Children to Give, Care and Share Through Great Literature!

Whether you are a parent, youth leader, teacher, or mentor, you can use shared reading experiences to inform and inspire children to act for the common good.

The shared experience of reading a book is powerful in many ways. We share our emotional reactions to stories—laugh, cry, and celebrate the joys and sorrows that good literature present. We discuss real issues in a safe environment. We broaden our global perspective. We share closeness as we sit and talk together. Books are delightful, and they stretch our minds with knowledge, understanding, and imagination.

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The literature guides combine selected literature with thought-provoking and fun activities that teach children about giving and civic engagement. The featured books raise issues of character education like respect, caring, giving, honoring diversity, helping others, fairness, responsibility, trustworthiness, and citizenship. As you read a book, the guide helps you speak intentionally about giving and sharing. The discussion questions spring naturally from the themes and settings presented in the literature.

These literature guides follow the research-based guided-reading model with before-, during-, and after-reading questions and activities. The questions make the reading experience more meaningful. The activities engage participants in team-building experiences.

Through repeated experiences with reading, discussion, and action, children progress from observers to doers. This educational model increases not only their language arts fluency, but also their philanthropic fluency.