Youth Venture

A nationwide non-profit dedicated to giving away brand new books to underprivliged K-3 children and promoting literacy

Kyle and Brady Baldwin started My Own Book because they love books.
They learned that a study done in Los Angeles by Dr. Rebecca Constantino with about 40 families from low- and high-income areas found that the low-income area elementary school children on average had no more than about TWO books at home (many with none), while the high-income area children had close to 200!

Kyle and Brady wanted to make a difference. They came up with a program to visit classrooms and reading aloud to children. They became a Youth Venture team in August 2006.

Through Youth Venture they were able to get better organized, initial funding, and lots of support. My Own Book developed so that teams of teens visit K through third grade classrooms to read and distribute brand new books. Each child in the class gets to choose their very own book. Bookplates with the child's name are added to each book. Getting a book of their own is really exciting to the children and makes owning a book and reading special.

My Own Book has been awarded grants from the Northern California Children’s Book Association, Do Something, First Book, National Education Association, Target, Tide Foundation, and Youth Venture. Through these grants, community book drives, and donations they have been able to collect books for children. Their mission is to spread the love of reading to other children.

The partners listed on the right are some of the organizations that have contributed to My Own Book.