Having books in the home is proven to positively benefit children in a myriad of ways. A two-decade-long study found that the mere presence of a home library increases children’s academic success, vocabulary development, attention, and job attainment. “Adolescent exposure to books is an integral part of social practices that foster long-term cognitive competencies,” wrote Joanna Sikora, the lead researcher. The study also showed that “the difference between being raised in a bookless home compared to being raised in a home with a 500-book library has as great an effect on the level of education a child will attain as having parents who are barely literate (3 years of education) compared to having parents who have a university education (15 or 16 years of education).” 1 In both cases, having university-educated parents or a book collection propelled “a child 3.2 years further in education, on average.”

In 2020, a quarter of 9-year-olds said they read for fun once or twice a week, 9% said they do this once or twice a month, and 8% said they do this a few times a year according to a survey conducted in late 2019 and early 2020 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Among 13-year-olds surveyed in the 2019-20 school year, 17% said they read for fun almost every day. About three-in-ten students in this age group (29%) said they never or hardly ever read for fun, up 21 percentage points from the 8% who said the same in 1984. When it comes to race and ethnicity, 9-year-old students who are Asian American, White or Hispanic were more likely to say they read for fun almost every day than were their Black peers in 2020. Students who performed better on the reading section of standardized tests in 2020 reported reading for fun more frequently.

As of 2021, only 7.1% of librarians are Black, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is just below the 10-year average, which is 7.4%. In 2021, roughly 87% of librarians were white people, which has been the average since 2013. In fact, Black, Asian, and Hispanic people have only ever crossed the 10% line twice — Black librarians accounted for 10.1% of the industry in 2011, and Hispanic librarians made up 10.4% in 2017. According to the Brookings Institution, there are more BIPOC folx than Whites under the age of 15 years old in the U.S.1 (The term "folx" is an alternative spelling to "folks" used to emphasize the inclusion of marginalized groups.) While the United States has a very diverse population, this diversity is not always reflected in children's books. "Books about White children, talking bears, trucks, monsters, potatoes, etc. represent nearly three quarters (71%) of children's and young adult books published in 2019," reports the Cooperative Children's Book Center.

A study looked at 100 National Book Award finalists and 20 winners between 1996 and 2015. The researchers found that of the 23 culturally relevant texts nominated as finalists (culturally relevant refers to "texts that are written about a culture by a cultural insider and engage students within that culture, who would not otherwise not see their culture reflected in a book"), only 5 of those books won the National Book Award.

58.2% of Milwaukee residents identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color). Milwaukee has a population of 569.330 residents. (US Census Data June 2021). Of those residents, 26.1% are younger than 18 years of age and 81% of these young people attend a public K-12 school. In these public schools, less than 5% of the staff identify as BIPOC (WI Policy Forum, 2019). When analyzing data from the Department of Public Education, 82.5% of students are performing below basic or basic proficiency in the area of English Language Arts. 90.5% of students are performing below basic or basic proficiency in the area of Mathematics (2021).