PRIME TIME Family Reading Time ®

Created by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) in 1991, PRIME TIME Family Reading Time was an award-winning reading, discussion, and storytelling series based on illustrated children’s books. National expansion was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and was a cooperative endeavor with the ALA Public Programs Office.

PRIME TIME was designed specifically for under-served families with children aged 6 to 10. Pre-reading activities were also available for pre-school children aged 3 to 4. The program helped low-income, low-literate families bond around the act of reading and talking about books. It modeled and encouraged family reading and discussion of humanities topics, and aided parents and children in selecting books and becoming active public library users. PRIME TIME librarians, scholars, storytellers and participants across the nation also shared their success stories and news through PRIME TIME News and Views e-newsletter.

For more information about this initiative, please visit LEH’s PRIME TIME pages .

This page brought to you by the American Library Association’s Public Programs Office.

Press Releases

• PPO, Four states selected for national expansion of PRIME TIME family reading program (6/15/2010)
• PPO, LEH announce new grants for PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME (4/8/2010)
• Three states, two library systems ready for PRIME TIME (12/4/07)
• PPO, LEH announce new grants for PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME—Applications now invited from library systems as well as state-level organizations (8/21/07)