How to make kids' eyes grow wide as pizzas with books

In 1998, John Wood, a Microsoft employee who was trekking in the Himalayas, visited the library of a dilapidated government school in Nepal. "Just imagine a room with empty shelves," he says. Backpackers had donated a few romance novels but Wood was shocked to find that there were no children's books. "Thankfully, the headmaster gave me a homework assignment to return with books," he recalls.
Wood has dedicated the last two decades to this "homework assignment".In 2000, he started Room to Read with two other founders Dinesh Shrestha and Erin Ganju. It's a non-profit that seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in low-income countries by focusing on developing literacy skills, a habit of reading among primary school children, and helping girls complete secondary school. Today, 11.6 million children have benefited from their programs in ten countries including Vietnam, South Africa and Bangladesh.
In India, where 35% of the world's illiterate population lives, Room to Read works in 8,736 schools across 11 states and has impacted 3.7 million children. They measure the impact of their literacy programs by comparing their children to those in schools not targeted by Room to Read. A report released by the organization shows that by the end of Grade 2, their students can read 32.2 words correctly per minute compared to 11.6. words in a comparison school.
To ensure that kids can read and write in their mother tongues, Room to Read publishes books in various languages which mainstream publishing houses ignore. Their goal was to find authors, who write in those languages, rather than simply translating 'Heidi' or 'Pippi Longstocking' into Rajasthani or Bhojpuri. "We wanted to find the JK Rowling of Rajasthan, the Dr Seuss of Nepal or the Tintin of Tanzania," says Wood. "We have now published over 1,500 original titles in 24 languages."
Room to Read works closely with state governments because they want to improve the existing infrastructure and not build it from scratch. They also don't spend more than four years in any one school to curb dependency on the program. But data shows that their libraries continue to function even after they have left. In a 2011-2012 study of 517 libraries, established between 2003 and 2007, Room to Read found 97% were still operational.
Wood, who reads 40-50 books a year and publishes his top 10 on Twitter, believes there's no gift greater than a book. A year after his first visit to the Nepali school, Wood returned with 3,000 brightly-coloured children's books donated by friends and family. The kids couldn't read most of them but they were euphoric just seeing pictures of the aquatic life in the ocean or of man walking on the moon. "When they saw the books, their eyes became as wide as pizzas," recalls Wood.