GiveBookJoy started out of a passion for reading and deep appreciation for the value books bring to the enrichment of our lives through story and learning. Our goal is to make sure children in underserved communities have access to books, and experience the Joys of Reading.
How we started
Founded by Dr. Cynthia Hagan, Book Joy was inspired at the Harvard Graduate School of Education while taking the popular course, Informal Learning for Children, led by renowned professor Dr. Joe Blatt. Working on a course project, Cynthia and her classmates designed the “Adventure Box”, a product intended to serve the literacy needs of young children in Cambridge Massachusetts who were experiencing homelessness.
After the project garnered praise from representatives of Sesame Workshop, Scholastic Books, and Walden Media, Cynthia was determined to use this as a model to help uplift children in her home state of West Virginia. The result was the Literacy Box™ - a product designed to meet the literacy needs of young children in Central Appalachia who are experiencing poverty.
Following this product development, she explored the idea more deeply at Harvard Innovation Labs and came up with a non-profit that aims to improve literacy in children in underserved communities. It was through this exploration that Book Joy Inc. was formed. As a lifelong reader who has taken the joys of books with her everywhere in life, she wants to ensure every child has the opportunity to experience growth through books and story. This is what GiveBookJoy aims to accomplish.
Read Cynthia’s feature in the Fall/Winter 2022 edition of Harvard Ed. Magazine.
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Christopher Reyes
Chief Development Officer, Chief Operations Officer.
About:
Christopher Reyes is a Media Psychologist, Behavior Designer, Writer, and Event Organizer. He joined GiveBookJoy in 2022, working to bring inspire passion for reading through media literacy and event organizing.
To date Chris’ fundraising efforts have helped raised over $85,000 for educational needs in areas of music performance, music literacy, and media literacy. His ultimate goal for Book Joy is to facilitate passion for reading and storytelling from a young age and inspire new generations of readers, and hopefully writers.