Who is the target audience for Unite books?

Our focal group is children birth to about age 8, but our books can be used by non-fluent readers of any age to gain literacy skills. Our library provides the tools for families and educators to help children reach key milestones on their path to becoming fluent and avid readers.

Who can benefit from these books?

All emerging readers of any age can enjoy our books to build language and literacy skills. Having free, digital access to relevant content builds knowledge for overall learning as well.

Families have access to more than 600+ free, published digital books with home language narration support in 60+ different languages. Friends and families that are supporting new readers may learn some new and interesting facts about various topics, as well. Most importantly, reading together can be fun and is a great bonding experience.

Educators have the same free access as families. Early childhood, elementary, and ELL/ESL educators use the digital library in the classroom for shared, guided and independent reading times. Using smart boards or projectors allows educators to share books with the entire classroom at the same time. Tablets and desktops allow individual students to explore the library on their own during independent reading time or in reading labs.

Why picture books?

Features of our books include predictable, rhythmic language; images with clear, familiar subjects; and text that ranges from one word up to a few sentences per page. Children everywhere can "see" themselves and imagine their full potential through the images in our books. Pictures that reflect a child’s eye view of the real world, in all its rich complexity, encourage rich conversation and a personal connection with books. Images also enhance comprehension of the text.

Why a print and digital books?

No matter the growth and speed of technology advances, we believe that children’s print books should and will have a place in the home. Book ownership helps establish a scholarly culture in the home and also reinforces concept of print. Increases in internet access and smartphone ownership make digital books more relevant today than anytime in history. Digital books are also a great way to provide abundant reading choices and audio support in multiple languages.

Why English and Spanish written text?

Our written languages are published to support the primary mediums of instruction for our current geographic priorities (United States and Mexico). As we expand our community projects we will add written languages to support other mediums of instruction.

Why audio narrations in different languages?

Our books provide audio support to families who speak (or are learning to speak) English, indigenous or foreign languages. Simple audio buttons on each page allow you to hear narrations by native speakers in warm, expressive voices.

Why Unite books are mostly nonfiction?

We seek to provide books that provide great relevance to children’s lives and motivate readers by tapping into their interests. Hence, our library content springs from efforts to capture family, neighborhood, community life, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and social-emotional topics. We round out our topics to also include art, play, poetry, and humor. We support reading fiction, as well, by sprinkling a few storybooks throughout the library.

Why 9 page-pairs of content?

Most publisher guidelines for picture books recommend using 0-1,000 words and strongly suggest that 100-400 words is the sweet spot. Our library consists of more than 600 published books that range in word count from 9 to 386 with the average book length of 117 words. The predictable language and shorter format allows emerging readers the opportunity to start and finish multiple books in any reading session. Completing a book gives the reader sense of accomplishment and success that encourages them to find another book. We know that families of new readers have trouble finding the time to read on a regular basis. Our books give families the ability to read one book in a few minutes or 10-15 books spread out over an hour or more. Our 9 page-pair books offer flexibility to time-crunched families.

Why the print layout and size?

While we do offer various printing sizes for our books, we have found that the booklet size of 4.75” X 4.75” has many advantages, including:

• Conducive to bundling with partners and value-added resellers to round our engagement programs four books in an A7 envelope with a 5X7 index card weighs less than 3.3oz (a significant weight threshold for household mailings).

• Allows for moderately sized photos (1024 x 728) to be used when creating new books (printing in larger formats would require higher resolution photos/illustrations, which are generally not as accessible).

• Comparable to the industry standard for educational books (Little Readers, Reading A-Z, etc.).

Visit our Products & Services page (LINK to https://www.unitebooks.com/products-and-services) for more information about our products.

Why the digital layout?

We have designed our website and our digital book layout to be optimized for various view ports (size of viewing window) and devices (desktops, tablets, mobile). The intuitive design for non-fluent readers supports shared reading, as well as self-exploration. We continuously make improvements based on feedback from users and the latest research.

Why is Unite for Literacy the solution?

We are not THE solution, but part of the solution. We support access to an abundance of culturally and linguistically relevant books from any resource. Our key differences that fill a void in the marketplace include: a focus on nonfiction for non-fluent readers; free publishing services for approved nonprofits and cultural institutions; free digital books to all educators and families; multi-language support through audio narrations; locally created books, low-cost print options to support abundance and easier access; sponsor-based print and digital assets; and measurable engagement.