Nestled in the west end of Inglewood, just a block off bustling 9 Avenue, is an unusual little red house that prides itself on providing a whimsical and often magical way for children to explore the world of books.

From the whale bathroom where books on underwater sea life can be found, to the tech room where Minecraft kids can dive into the literary side of the hit game, to the cozy Indigenous room where books about Alberta’s Treaty Peoples can be found: there is a book and a room for every young reader.

Every young reader gets to take home a book of their choice—to own—at the end of their visit. It’s all part of letting kids experience the pride of ownership with books.

But even though nearly half of the families that visit the Little Red Reading House are under Calgary’s fair entry program, the staff at the house acknowledge that there is always a need to reach more people in need with the gift of literacy.

“We try and give book access to as many agencies in the city as we can. We give to some of the domestic violence shelters because if you’re escaping violence, you’re not picking up a book to run out of the house. But what better way to escape from whatever you’re coming out of than through a book,” said Parisa Radmanesh, House Coordinator for the Little Red Reading House.

“You’re taken into new worlds, and your imagination just goes. It’s just a nice, comforting, nurturing way for kids if they have a book.”

Visits to the house can be booked for $20, or for free for Fair Entry program participants, but the house also provides books through a book van, school trips, and through partnerships with social service agencies across the city.

Creating access for books

That equitable access to books, said LRRH Bookbank Coordinator Dawn Cruickshank, is a big thing for the Little Red Reading House.

“Libraries are great, but if you have to take two busses to get to a library, or two busses and a train, that’s a barrier for a lot of families. So with us, they’re actually at an agency—they can just take it off the shelf. The more books you own, the more likely that you’ll be a reader,” she said.

The need is great. Stats shared by the LRRH via Statistics Canada indicate that 25 per cent of families are not reading together at home, 27 per cent of children have started school with literacy vulnerabilities, and 33 per cent of 16-year-olds have weak literacy skills.

Some six per cent of households have said they don’t own books.

“When kids come to the house three or four times, they’re building [their own] library by getting a new book every time that they come here. It’s the same with any of the agencies, they’re doing the same thing,” Cruickshank said.

“Some of them are doing programming, and we supply books for that. Lots of kids love to read the same book over and over and over, so if they get to keep the book, then they’re going to be able to do that.”

The ability to keep a book for themselves can be a novel concept for some children who aren’t used to the idea of being able to own books, said Radmanesh.

“We actually have these nice little like bookplate stickers that at the end of the visit we put into each book, and it says ‘this book belongs to,’ and they get to write their name in it because we really want kids to have pride in book ownership,” Radmanesh said.

That mission fits with the Owerko Centre at the University of Calgary, which was likewise gifted the Little Red Reading House from Calgary Reads.

“One of the really wonderful things about the house falling under University of Calgary’s ownership is now there’s this opportunity to integrate the research that’s coming out of the Werkland School, the Cummings School of Medicine, and Faculty of Social Work,” said Helen Dunlop, Senior Communications Specialist with the Owerko Centre.

“There’s all these different areas that can touch on literacy and child health and integrating some of the research there. Research can often feel quite siloed and inaccessible, often a lab somewhere, but this is a nice way to actually bring it into a space that is welcoming and inviting, and actually show people the impact of the work that’s being done in those places.”

Getting books into the hands of children over the fall giving season

Starting on Oct. 5, and again on Nov. 2, the Little Red Reading House will be accepting book donations at their bookbank location at Shedpoint in the Highfield Industrial Area.

Calgarians are being asked to drop off gently used, or even brand new children’s books, at 1212 – 34 Avenue SE at Bay 120.

Those books will, in turn, go to families this fall, through a variety of social service agencies like the YW, Big Brothers Big Sisters, or the Calgary Food Bank in their under-12 birthday care packages.

Those donations will allow the LRRH to reach a critical age group, said Radmanesh.

“I mean, the house is focused on reaching kids before the age of Grade 3, because after the age of Grade 3, it’s a lot harder to catch up on reading skills.”

On the book bank side of LRRH, there has also been increasing demand by social service agencies to include books into their programming provided to clients, said Cruickshank.

“There’s definitely a positive impact because we were increasingly asked every month for more books or another agency reaches out. We’ve heard feedback from families from Habitat for Humanity. We give [book] baskets to each family who has a first home possession, and they said that’s the first thing the kids go for when they go into that house,” she said.

Cruickshank said that other ways that groups can get involved are by organizing their own book drives outside of the first Saturday of the month donation times—like the Girl Guides.

For more information on the Little Red Reading House, or on how to donate books, see www.littleredreading.house.