Welcome Baby

With the choice of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle or Blanket of Love by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

A partnership project of:

Family Reading Partnership

Tompkins Trust Company
Cayuga Medical Center
Wegmans

Overview

Every baby born at the Cayuga Birth Place receives the iconic board book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," tucked into a useful canvas bag along with a pamphlet full of ideas for families to Talk, Sing, Read, and Play with their infants to develop their early literacy skills. Families who adopt, host foster children, or have a home birth receive the set from their pediatrician.

Place books into families' homes, increasing book ownership
Encourage and support families reading to their babies beginning at birth so it becomes part of everyday family life
Share the importance and pleasure of reading to babies: Reading aloud to babies creates a special bond between parent and child, and reading aloud to children now will help children have success learning to read later on
Encourage professionals who work with families to promote reading to babies
Start a new community book tradition by celebrating the birth of the baby, one of the most joyous family events, with a book
Provide our community's families with a common book experience that crosses socioeconomic lines

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a well-known story about growth and change. A caterpillar, depicted in bright, hand-colored paper collage, hatches from a tiny egg. After eating his way through the book (actually leaving holes in the pages!) he changes into a beautiful butterfly. As Eric Carle says, "Ultimately this story is about hope; every living thing will grow up, be beautiful, and unfold its talents." The board version of this book is used as a gift to babies so that the book can be saved as a special memento from childhood.

Parents have the choice of another book, Blanket of Love by Alyssa Satin Capucilli for their baby, especially if an older sibling previously received "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." This board book

This was our first community partnership around books. In 1995, when Family Reading Partnership founder Brigid Hubberman was working at federally funded family-wellness (WIC) sites through a local literacy program, she was struck by how easy it was to spot the children (even two-year-olds!) who had been read to beginning at birth. Wanting to get out the message that "it is never too early to start reading to babies," she thought that a book could be given at birth from the hospital. This was not a new concept but, as often is the case, this great idea was incubating in many places around the United States at once. Other communities were giving out books at birth, and it was a project that our local hospital enthusiastically wanted to adopt, too.

A local bank, the Tompkins Trust Company, has not only funded the book since the project's inception, but thanks us for the opportunity to contribute to the community in such a meaningful way. The bookplate label that is placed inside of each book given to families acknowledges the partners in the project and personalizes the book. Volunteers put the bookplates in each book and deliver them with the red book bags to our hospital and libraries.

The many letters of thanks we receive each year from parents illustrate the impact this program has on creating a culture of literacy in our community.

From a Head Start mother: "As we drove home from the hospital with the new baby, my four-year-old son unwrapped the book and 'read' it to his new baby brother all the way home. That special memory will be with us, and with him, for life."
From a mother at WIC (nutrition program for low-income families): "When my daughter was born, we were given a book as a gift at the hospital. I honestly never thought that you would read to babies. I went out and got some more books right away. I really believe that she loves books so much today because we began at birth.

Welcome Baby

A partnership project of:

Overview

Objectives

The Book

Project Background

Project Partners

Measures of Success