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Friends of Literacy builds home libraries for lowincome children through book distribution empowers parents and caregivers to be their childs first teacher by providing literacy resources and encourages families to establish nightly reading routines. Research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation showed that children from lowincome families start kindergarten 1214 months behind in language and prereading skills compared to children from higherincome families. Studies show that the effects of language exposure on cognitive and linguistic abilities are evident by age three and as much as 60 of vocabulary at age eight is related to home literacy practices before age three.