While the children attending story times at Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) and other libraries across the country will not be weighing in during this November's elections, they will be making some important decisions--about their favorite books, their preferred post-story time activity, and best ice cream flavors.

These story times underscore that you're never too young to become Reader Voter Ready. Just as libraries build readers, they can also help build voters of all ages. This approach is borne out by recent research that suggests civic education, including voter education, should begin long before children reach eligible voting age (circle.tufts.edu/circlegrowingvoters) and that civic education for kids may have trickle up effects, encouraging voter participation among their parents (oconnorinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/PolicyBrief9.12.2023OConnorInstitute.pdf).

What better pairing than literacy and democracy? BPL's coordinator of early childhood services, Rachel Payne, recently described how libraries can offer story times that nurture young voters and empower their parents and caregivers in an article co-authored for with Betsy Diamant-Cohen, founder of Mother Goose on the Loose. 

Payne, Diamant-Cohen, and others will further explore how they encourage voting and incorporate voter registration and other nonpartisan activities into programming during an upcoming , to be held on August 29 and open to all library workers, volunteers, and advocates.

BPL's motto is "Start here." We can't think of a better way to start young people on a path towards being , and to engage their parents and caregivers in the process.

Have a story about how your library encourages voter participation? !