"Books From Birth" program hopes to set newborns up with lifelong love of reading

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A local program is providing new and growing families with a gift aimed at encouraging a life-long love of literacy for their little ones.

Memorial Hospital held an installment of its ongoing "Books From Birth" program today, June 8. It launched this past April. Each family of a newborn is given a box of 10 books to take home. Organizers say they aim to foster literacy and encourage early brain development.

"We all assume, in a simple way, that the work to build a child's educational foundation starts at kindergarten," says Ginger Young, the founder and CEO at Book Harvest in Durham, North Carolina. "That is way too late. 90% of a child's brain is developed by the age of five, and those first days, weeks, and months are the most active consequential in a baby. There are a million neurons firing every single second, so we don't want to miss that developmental window. We have to jump in the moment a child is with us and begin that journey with them on day one."

Since launch, the program has given out over 340 sets of books.