Program
Promoting Transparency and Accountability of Sub-national Budget Management in Cambodia
This program creates supportive reading environments where children can access free, relevant books and engaging learning opportunities.
The Asia Foundation’s free digital library and early literacy initiative, helping children build strong reading skills through stories that reflect their own languages, cultures, and experiences.
Millions of children across Asia and the Pacific lack access to books in the languages they speak.
Working with local writers, illustrators, educators, publishers, and governments, we create high-quality children’s books, strengthen reading ecosystems, and promote reading at home, in schools, and in communities.
By combining open-access technology with locally led publishing and literacy programs, Let’s Read is expanding access to books while helping improve learning outcomes across Asia and the Pacific.
HOW LET’S READ WORKS
Every child deserves the opportunity to discover the joy of reading. Let’s Read strengthens early literacy by combining locally created books, universal access, community engagement, and long-term partnerships. Together, these four elements build reading habits that help children develop the curiosity, imagination, and skills they need to thrive.
Culturally Rooted Storybooks
Children are more likely to engage with stories that reflect their own languages, cultures, and experiences. Let’s Read works with local authors, illustrators, translators, and publishers to create high-quality books that children see themselves in.
Universal Access
Free digital books, open licensing, and affordable print editions remove barriers to reading so children, families, educators, and communities can access books wherever they live.
Reading Opportunities
Let’s Read supports teachers, families, librarians, and community organizations to build everyday reading habits through read-alouds, story times, classrooms, and community events.
Shared Accountability
Working alongside governments, schools, publishers, and development partners, Let’s Read strengthens local reading ecosystems so improvements continue long after individual projects end.
Impact
Children’s books published in more than 70 languages
Freely available through the Let’s Read digital library.
Local languages represented
Helping children learn to read in languages they know and use every day.
Digital books accessed
By children, families, and educators across Asia and the Pacific.
Countries
Governments and local partners working together to strengthen early literacy and reading ecosystems.
Educators in the Philippines
Integrating social-emotional learning through Let’s Read books and classroom activities.
Let’s Read Digital Library
Free and accessible to anyone with a phone or internet connection, the Let’s Read digital Library makes nearly 11,000 titles in more than 75 languages available to every classroom and household.
Our Approach
Building Reading Communities (Mobile Libraries)
Reaching more than 3,500 children and 180 parents, a mobile library brought books into monasteries and community centers across Siem Reap province, Cambodia. Built with partner Caring for Cambodia for $1.60 per child, the turnout showed families’ desire for reading, now sustained through community ownership.
Creating Local Books (Storybook Studio)
Let’s Read’s Storybook Studio is where writers, emerging and experienced, bring their stories to life. Let’s Read provides structure, editorial partnership, and high standards that amplify each author’s voice, ensuring children see their own lives reflected in the pages. Let’s Read has produced more than 700 original stories.
Supporting Families from Birth (Baby Book Bags)
Let’s Read Mongolia partnered with three maternity hospitals to place 1,400 custom book bags in the hands of new mothers, meeting families at the start of a child’s life. More than half of participating mothers reported reading with their children more often, establishing early at-home reading habits from day one.
Culturally Rooted Early Reading (Decodable Books)
Let’s Read’s Decodable Series is the first collection of English decodable books written and illustrated entirely by creators from Asia and the Pacific. Spanning seven countries, the research-based books support children in learning to read English through their own landscapes and daily lives and have been read more than 410,000 times.
Countries
As a strategic partner in the Philippines’ education governance reforms—working with the Department of Education and local partners—Let’s Read supports classroom reading outcomes and national literacy reforms. More than 464,000 storybooks have been distributed to more than 8,000 elementary schools nationwide, directly closing identified gaps in classroom reading materials.
Let’s Read partners with Thai kindergartens, educators, and families to strengthen early literacy at school and at home. Through the Let’s Read and Play initiative, Let’s Read partners with more than 1,500 children and 1,600 family members participated, while weekly family reading rates more than doubled from 22% to 46%, outpacing peer schools.
Through community centers, educators, and local governments, Let’s Read is building a culture of reading from an early age. Programs reached more than 6,600 people, including 3,700 children and 1,100 teachers, while parents recognizing the importance of early reading increased from 50% to 68%.
Across Indonesia’s diverse islands, classroom read-alouds and home reading habits do not always reach every community. Let’s Read partners with educators, school networks, and community organizations to strengthen read-aloud practices and foster a culture of reading. Indonesia’s vibrant online, read-aloud community regularly reads more than 200,000 Let’s Read books each month.
Let’s Read partners with Pacific communities to create culturally relevant stories that strengthen literacy while supporting conversations about locally important issues. In Papua New Guinea, local authors developed books on peace, accountability, and social cohesion, accompanied by community discussion guides. The initiative has distributed 21,000 books through 32 community events, helping children and families read, learn, and engage together.
