“To be a person is to have a story to tell,” writer Isak Dinesen once said — but not everyone gets the chance to tell their story. A new partnership aims to give more young people that opportunity. First Book, a national nonprofit that works to boost educational opportunities for children in underresourced communities, is teaming up with The Moth to bring a storytelling curriculum to classrooms in low-income communities. Supported by a $250,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the initiative will “use the power of storytelling to enrich classrooms and fuel literacy and the joy of reading,” according to the announcement.
Since its founding 34 years ago, First Book has provided more than 250 million books and other resources to educators and students. It reaches more than 6.5 million kids a year and has an online community of over 600,000 members. Kyle Zimmer, who cofounded First Book and is its president and CEO, described the organization’s members as “teachers and caregivers and program people in Title One schools and every other imaginable setting: libraries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and healthcare settings. First Book has aggregated the largest group of adults in the lives of kids in poverty in the United States.”
The Moth specializes in the art and craft of storytelling. It spotlights storytellers and their true tales at live events, on its podcast and on many public radio stations. The Moth also helps young people develop and refine their own stories through its Education Program, which offers curriculum for educators, high school and college students, along with partnerships with schools.
First Book will make The Moth’s storytelling curriculum available to its large membership. It seems like a natural partnership, and one that aligns with the priorities of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which works to promote the wellbeing of children and families, including through early childhood education.
“Strong storytelling skills help children build confidence, strengthen literacy and see their own experiences as worthy of being heard,” Kellogg senior program officer, Jonathan Njus, said when the initiative was announced. “By bringing together First Book’s deep reach with educators and The Moth’s expertise in storytelling, this partnership gives children the tools to express themselves, connect with others and thrive both in and beyond the classroom.”
First Book makes more books available to more kids
Kyle Zimmer and two friends cofounded First Book 34 years ago. At the time, Zimmer was an attorney in Washington, D.C., and a volunteer tutor at a food pantry and after-school program. The program provided meals and a safe space for kids and families at a time when D.C. was experiencing high rates of drug-related crime and violence. Zimmer liked reading to the children, but there were few books or other resources available at the small, underfunded program. “I began wondering, why are books so expensive?” Zimmer recalled. This question sent her down a rabbit hole as she explored the financial ins and outs of the publishing industry; it also provided the inspiration for First Book.
The new organization began to reach out to publishers with a proposal that would make more books available to more kids. “First Book approached the publishers and said, ‘If we buy, on a non-returnable basis and in large quantity, can we get the books at a lower price?’” Zimmer said. “We tried to knock every risk and every cost off the table, and we approached it as a business proposition with the publishers. I wanted the best books for the kids, not just books that didn’t sell. The publishers agreed and we’ve grown to the point where we’re the largest specialty buyer for most of the major children’s publishers in the United States.”
First Book makes lower-priced books and other resources available to its many members and member organizations, who can join for free. It moves 10 to 12 million books a year through its First Book Marketplace. Approximately half of those books are donated by publishers; members only pay for shipping and processing. The other half, which are professionally curated by First Book, can be purchased for 50 to 90% off retail.
First Book also has a Research & Insights arm which offers members the latest findings on literacy and other issues (its studies include one on the impact of book bans and another on the benefits of a diverse classroom library, for example). “We realized that we really needed fast turnaround feedback from practitioners: what’s working, what’s not working, what’s keeping them up at night,” Zimmer said.
A third program, the First Book Accelerator, explores issues that are of concern to its members, and offers expert information and tools. A recent issue the accelerator took on was mental health. “As you know, youth mental health has never been more of a crisis,” Zimmer said. “Our members tell us ‘we see these behaviors, but we’ve never been trained in mental health. We don’t know how to talk to parents about it.’ Professional development at many Title One schools is either nonexistent or it’s not very helpful. So what we do with the accelerator is, after we identify the issue members are wrestling with, we reach outside our organization to identify the real thought leaders who are able to inform our community.”
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Funding to share the magic
For the new initiative, the funding from Kellogg will enable The Moth to restructure its educator training program into a blended, live and virtual series that will reach thousands more educators through First Book’s new digital Community Platform. Educators will also be eligible for live coaching.
“Affluent schools have access to these kinds of terrific trainings all the time,” Zimmer said. “It’s the schools at the other end of the ladder that don’t get this type of thing. But now they will.”
First Book receives support from publishers, as well as corporations and private foundations. Several years ago, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation provided funding for a different First Book program. When Zimmer approached the foundation about The Moth partnership, the team there was quick to offer support. “The Kellogg Foundation has always been visionary,” Zimmer said. “They stepped right up on this because they saw the power of stories to unify — to elevate kids, but also to unify the country.”
Zimmer called the Kellogg funding — $250,000 over 18 months — a “starter grant.” First Book will need additional funding to keep the partnership going and reach more kids. “We need funding to support this work and The Moth needs funding to support their work on our platform. We also need funding to really get the word out. We want to train thousands and thousands of teachers. This is magic, and we want to make sure that we share it far and wide.”
The First Book initiative comes at a time when schools are facing increased absenteeism and lower test scores on top of education budget cuts while the country is experiencing a youth mental health crisis. Stories and storytelling aren’t going to solve these complex, multifactorial problems, of course. But along with boosting literacy, communication skills and critical thinking, storytelling provides young people a sense of perspective and means of making sense of their world. And it benefits the rest of us, who get to hear the stories that otherwise might never be told.
