IdahoPTV First Book Program

Become a Member
Support the programming and educational initiatives of Idaho Public Television by joining today.

Learn Cable

PBS Teacherline

IdahoPTV's First Book

Books open up new worlds Idaho Public Television collaborates with First Book and other non-profit organizations to give disadvantaged children the opportunity to read and to provide free books to children who otherwise might not have books in the home. IdahoPTV distributes 1700 books each month to underprivileged children around the state. The goals of IdahoPTV's First Book are:

to build a love of reading and encourage family literacy.
to build a library of 12 books for a child who otherwise might not own books. (New groups of children are selected annually to receive books.)
when books are given to the children they will be accompanied by an activity which extends the learning and helps to build a love of reading.
that parental education be provided.

Each year we serve new children, even though we may work with the same partner organizations. Books are delivered face to face by our partners and include an educational component. Every book is accompanied by suggested activities that provide television to book and activity correlations.

List and map of last year's First Book partners.

Our First Book year runs from September through August. Partnership applications are accepted each year through June 1.

Funding for Ready to Read is provided by: PBS Ready To Learn, A grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and the Idaho State Library.

OTHER BOOK CONNECTIONS

BOOKS ON TV
Idaho Public Television broadcasts 56 hours every week of high-quality, educational children's programs. BETWEEN THE LIONS, READING RAINBOW, ARTHUR, BOOKWORM BUNCH, and Berenstain Bears are all book-based and encourage reading. Click on any of the programs for a schedule of what book will be featured each day.

BETWEEN THE LIONS is an award-winning book-based program that kids love. Watch it weekdays at 11:00/10:00 a.m. MT/PT and at 5:00 p.m. PT only. BETWEEN THE LIONS is named for a family of lions who run a library like no other on earth. The doors swing open to reveal a magical place where characters pop off the pages of books, vowels sing, and words take on a life of their own. The series combines innovative puppetry, animation, live action, and music to transform the sometimes confusing process of learning to read into an entertaining adventure for children ages 4 to 7 and their families.

READING RAINBOW connects kids to reading adventures that encourage learning and a love of books! Watch it weekdays on IdahoPTV. Miss an episode? The Idaho State Library has all of the Reading Rainbow programs available on video for families and teachers. Check out their collection and Book It Online!

Don't miss the Children's Program Schedule for information on all of our quality children's programming!

CONNECTIONS
Check out monthly Connections for more program and book information.

EXPLORING NEW BOOKS
Before you head out to the library, you can see if your library has the book you want! The Idaho State Library (LILI) has a great website with a searchable database to locate specific booktitles or authors. You can search the whole database and also link to your local library databases!

	First Book Click the link below to jump directly to that page: First Book Information Application Partners