Raving Toy Maniac

Kids Who Read Beat Summer Slide

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2013 -- For kids, few moments in life are more glorious than the end of the school year and the start of summer vacation. Hooray! Three whole months of sweet freedom!

But when school's out, kids from low-income families have a real problem on their hands.

Unlike their more affluent peers, most of them don't spend summer break at the library or reading books in the backseat on family trips. In fact, many of them won't open a book until school starts up again.

Those three months off take a disastrous toll. Experts call the effect "summer slide" and it erases months of hard-earned progress in school, lost ground that kids in need can't afford.

Books are the answer. Studies show that kids from low-income families who have access to books over the summer not only beat the summer slide, but make even greater gains than kids from wealthy and middle-class families.

First Book, a nonprofit social enterprise that provides new books to kids in need, has published an original infographic illustrating this problem – and its solution.