Parents of young children know there’s only so many hours in the day when your babies aren’t screaming, crying or in need of a diaper change. And in those precious moments of calm, those sleep-deprived young parents are probably not doing a deep-dive on the best new children’s books.
But families in Miami-Dade County have another option — the Children’s Trust Book Club. Launched in 2015, the initiative run by the taxpayer-funded organization sends a free book every month to young children from birth until they turn five.
So far, the program has distributed more than 1.6 million free books —in fact, demand was so great that at one point last year registration was paused. But a recent expansion means the Book Club can now serve up to 60,000 Miami-Dade families — up from a previous limit of 40,000 — and the program is welcoming new registrations.
When hospitality worker Galina llcheva first signed up her son David, she thought the program was too good to be true.
“Sometimes you register for those things but you think, 'Oh my god it’s one of those that it will never come,'” Ilcheva said. “But when I received the first book, I was like, 'Oh my god!'”
Ilcheva signed up her son when he was about seven months old, back in 2020 — in the dark days of the pandemic when it didn’t feel safe to spend hours leisurely wandering the stacks at the Miami-Dade County Public Library (which will also mail you books for free — here’s how).
So Ilcheva turned to the Children’s Trust Book Club and started getting a curated selection of developmentally appropriate books delivered directly to her door, in a cheerful package decorated with a giraffe.
Four years later, David looks forward to those monthly “gifts” — and he has a whole library of his own books, some of which his mom says are on heavy rotation at bedtime.
“Some of them, I will tell you, they become very favorites. So we tend to reread them many, many, many, many times,” Ilcheva said with a smile. “And sometimes those many times are in one night!”
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Families can elect to receive books in English or Spanish, and can request special deliveries of books in Haitian Creole as well. Galina says it’s helped her four year old dramatically improve his literacy skills — and it's also helped his grandparents, whose primary language is Bulgarian.
“They’re learning a little bit of English and Spanish through him. But he’s learning all the Bulgarian with them,” she said. “The more languages he knows the better, no?”
And each of the monthly book deliveries comes with a resource guide to help families teach their kids how to read — deciphering letters and sounds and absorbing every detail on the colorful pages.
“I call it my cheatsheet because they teach you how to actually read the book,” Ilcheva said. “The parent guide is teaching you how to actually make three words on the page a full-blown 10 minutes conversation with your kid. Which ultimately allows you to also connect with your kid on a different level.”
Families can sign their kids up for the Book Club at any time and at any age — from birth until their child turns five. More information is available here.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify details on the availability of Haitian Creole language children's books.
