Developing high quality books for children and their parents

In most developing countries the publishing industry is very small and reliant on text book publishing for its core business. The market for books other than text books is modest and as a result publishers lack incentives to publish non-text book materials. As a result First Read recognises the need to support the local production of books for preschoolers in order to create a rich literate environment for this age group.

Rather than produce and publish materials in its own right First Read proposes to work with local publishers by building their skills, knowledge and capacity to develop material for pre-school children.

First Read proposes to invite local publishers to tender to print and publish high quality, age appropriate, context specific materials for preschoolers. First Read will subsequently agree to purchase sufficient copies of approved material to distribute to families participating in the project, thereby stimulating the demand for locally published books.

Publishers are then free to print additional quantities of the material that they can make available to the local and regional book market.