Reach Out and Read

All Are Welcome: Providing Books in Multiple Languages to Little Victors

Reading is good medicine for the mind. With the assistance of the Reach Out and Read program, Michigan Medicine pediatric providers prescribe books at well-child checkups from birth to age 5, allowing our youngest children to build home libraries.

The program capitalizes on the rapid brain development unfolding during a child’s earliest years. Our providers encourage caregivers to prioritize shared reading with their young children to foster a love of reading and to promote family bonding. A robust vocabulary and early language skills provide a solid foundation for school success. The complimentary books are tools to foster that success and ensure that all our patients have access to high-quality and diverse titles.

Reach Out and Read would like to purchase books in the primary language of the patients we serve. This would include purchasing titles in Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Pashto, Russian, and Spanish, in addition to more easily accessible English-titles. 

Providing a book in a family’s primary language not only gives caregivers a book that they feel comfortable reading, but means so much more — it is a way of showing our families that we have planned for their visit, that we see them and know what language is most comfortable for them, and that we value them just as they are when they arrive in our clinics.

Often, when a family realizes that they have been given a book in their first language, a huge smile stretches across their face. It’s a simple act, but one that speaks volumes and sets the stage for a positive relationship with their child’s physician.

Reach Out and Read at the University of Michigan has been serving children with the gift of early childhood reading education since 1997. It is one of the oldest Reach Out and Read programs in the nation. With nine outpatient clinics, our pediatric providers have distributed more than 400,000 books. In 2024, our physicians shared a record-breaking 35,341 books in our nine outpatient clinics!

With your generosity, we can continue this critical program that builds brighter minds and stronger bonds between child and caregiver. To read is to succeed.