*VIDEO NOT AVAILABLE FOR THIS SESSION*

Barbershop Books, winner of National Book Foundation’s Innovations in Reading Prize, creates child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops and provides early literacy training to barbers. Over the past six years, Barbershop Books has identified and tested best practices for cultivating Black boys’ intrinsic motivation to read. This lecture will examine how Barbershop Books works with system leaders, Title I directors, and school administrators to 1) engage parents and communities about early literacy, 2) improve children’s access to developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant books, and 3) increase out-of-school time reading among Black boys. Barbershop Books’ low cost, high impact, and culturally responsive approach to supporting early literacy has a direct, immediate, and ongoing positive impact on the reading habits of children and caregivers at participating barbershops.