Thousands of books are donated from the Albuquerque community to the Read to Me program to increase kids’ access to books in this “Book Desert.” The goal is to instill a love of reading and to increase interaction and bonding within families. The volunteers at Read to Me page through every donated children’s book in order to make each book as attractive as possible for future readers.

​

An ulterior motive would to be the first, in twenty-five years, to find a hundred-dollar bill that had been used as a bookmark in one of these donated, gently used books. So far someone found a five-dollar bill once, enough to keep the team’s hopes up. It was used to buy another children’s book.

​

Other treasures have been found: a love note to Mom, polaroid photos of a wedding of some unknown characters, a testament to the value of the book from a small child, a chilling note by a second grader written while her school was on lockdown, a homemade bookmark crayoned with the words “My brother is a hero.” One find was a set of prenatal ultrasound photos. Our team was certain that these would have very strong personal value and immediately began detective work to determine the ownership. These clever volunteers were able to find a variety of clues and eventually gave the photos to the grateful family.

​

The true treasures found in the books are the words, the art work, and the inspiration that encourage more and better reading.