Every kid deserves a book they can't put down.
Lantern puts books — and the people who help kids love them — into under-resourced classrooms and homes, so a child's zip code stops deciding whether they learn to read.
1.4M books delivered · 4,408 classroom libraries built
Why it matters
Two kids start kindergarten the same week.
By third grade, a year and a half separates them.
The gap doesn't open in the classroom. It opens at home, on weekends, over summers — anywhere a book either is or isn't within reach. A child in a book-rich home will have heard millions more words before kindergarten than a child in a book desert.
And the gap compounds. Reading is the skill every other subject is built on, so a kid who isn't reading by the end of third grade isn't just behind in reading — they're behind in everything, and far less likely to finish high school. Books, early and often, are the cheapest intervention we have.
No age-appropriate book at home at all — versus 8% of their higher-income peers.
Average reading-level slide over a single summer without books — it stacks up year over year.
In the schools Lantern surveyed, nearly half of classrooms had no working book collection.
What we do
Four ways we get kids reading.
Books matter most when they're paired with someone who helps a child love them. Every program does both.
Classroom libraries
A curated 300-book library, refreshed yearly, for classrooms that have none.
Take-home bundles
Ten books a child picks and keeps — because owning a book changes how you read it.
Volunteer tutors
Trained volunteers who read one-on-one with a child 30 minutes every week.
Family literacy nights
Evening events that send families home with books, dinner, and a reading plan.
Impact
What a book actually does.
Into classrooms and kids' own hands since 2016.
Each refreshed with new titles every school year.
Reading on grade level one year into the program.
Across 14 states, all Title I or rural districts.
Where your money goes
Fiscal year 2025, independently audited.
- Books & literacy programs88%
- Fundraising7%
- Administration5%
Cumulative books delivered
2016 → 2025, counted at the classroom door.
A reader's story
The year Marcus found a book worth hiding under the desk for.
When Renata Ortiz met Marcus, he was eight and reading at a kindergarten level. During silent reading he'd hold a book open at the right page and stare past it — a small, practiced way of disappearing. "He wasn't behind because he couldn't," she says. "He was behind because nothing had ever felt like his."
Lantern stocked Ms. Ortiz's classroom with 300 books and started Marcus on take-home bundles. In November he picked up a graphic novel about a kid astronaut, finished it in two days, and asked — quietly, like it might not be allowed — if there was a second one. There were eleven.
By June, Marcus was reading two grades above level. He'd also become the kid who reads to his younger sister at night, doing all the voices.
"I didn't teach Marcus to read. A book he loved did. I just made sure he had eleven of them."
Donate
Turn a gift into a bookshelf.
Every dollar buys books at nonprofit pricing — about $2.50 a title. Pick a gift and we'll tell you exactly what it puts in a kid's hands.
- $25
- puts 10 books — picked and kept — into one child's hands.
- $50
- sends a full take-home reading bundle to an entire family.
- $100
- stocks half a classroom library for a teacher who has none.
Give today
SecureTax-deductible · cancel a monthly gift anytime · 100% of your gift buys books
2026 Bookshelf Fund · 11,408 donors so far
Ways to give
More ways to put a book in a hand.
The Reading Circle
A monthly gift lets us promise teachers their library now — and refresh it every year.
Start monthly →Employer matching
Many companies double a gift to literacy nonprofits. Check yours — it doubles the books.
Check your employer →Legacy giving
Name Lantern in your will and keep classrooms stocked for the next generation of readers.
Plan a gift →Donate books
Run a book drive or send new titles from our classroom wishlist — we handle the sorting.
See the wishlist →Become a tutor
Thirty minutes a week, one child, in person or online. We train you and pair you.
Volunteer to read →Not sure where to start?
A one-time gift today puts books in a classroom this semester.
Donate now →Transparency
Where your money goes, in the open.
Lantern is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our books are bought at nonprofit pricing, our finances are audited every year, and all of it is public.
EIN 81-4408206
Backed by foundations, school partners, and 19,212 readers & donors
FAQ
Questions donors ask.
How do you choose which schools?
Schools apply, and we prioritize by need: Title I status, the share of students reading below grade level, and how few books are already in classrooms. We also weight for districts no other literacy nonprofit is serving — rural schools especially get overlooked.
Are the books new or used?
New. We buy current titles at nonprofit pricing — roughly $2.50 a book — so kids get books that look as good as the ones in any bookstore. A brand-new book a child gets to keep carries a signal that a hand-me-down doesn't: this is yours, and you're worth it.
Can I donate books instead of money?
Yes — new books from our classroom wishlist are always welcome, and we'll send a book-drive kit if you want to organize one. That said, a cash gift usually goes further: our nonprofit pricing means $25 buys ten books, where ten retail books would cost three times that.
Is there a monthly giving option?
There is — it's called the Reading Circle. Monthly gifts are the funding we count on most: they let us promise a teacher their library before the school year starts, instead of hoping the money arrives. You can change or cancel anytime.
How do you measure reading improvement?
We use the assessments schools already run — fall and spring reading-level benchmarks — and compare Lantern classrooms to similar classrooms without the program. Last year, students in Lantern classrooms gained 38 percentage points more on grade-level reading than the comparison group.
Be the reason a kid asks for
one more chapter.
Ten books, chosen and kept, can change how a child sees themselves. Your gift buys the next ten.