My Home Library will help close the 'book gap' Wade Smith helps kick off program for Houston kids

Former NFL player Wade Smith reads from his book, "Smitty Hits The Play Books," to a group of third graders at Browning Elementary Tuesday. Smith helped launch the My Home Library program, created by the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation. less Former NFL player Wade Smith reads from his book, "Smitty Hits The Play Books," to a group of third graders at Browning Elementary Tuesday. Smith helped launch the My Home Library program, created by the ... more Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close My Home Library will help close the 'book gap' 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

Wade Smith knows that books are important.

The former Texans player leveled with a crowd of first-, second- and third-graders at Browning Elementary Tuesday morning.

"When I was a little kid, my mom and my dad and my sister, we just lived in an apartment and we didn't have a lot of money," he told them. "We couldn't go to Europe or any of those fantastic places. But I could pick up a book and open it up, and it could take me wherever I wanted to go."

Smith was there to help launch My Home Library, a new program designed to give disadvantaged kids in Houston the same chance to escape into a book.

Developed by the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, My Home Library is a web app that will help pair donors with low-income kids. Each child will make a wishlist of six book titles; each donor, then, can browse the wishlists and make a $30 donation to sponsor a specific child's personal library.

Kids at Browning are part of the pilot program. They'll be making their wishlists next week, and those lists will appear online soon at myhomelibraryhouston.org.

"You're going to be able to pick six brand-new books," foundation president Julie Baker Finck told the kids at Browning, who were lined up on the auditorium floor. "It's going to be like going to a book fair and not having to pay for them. It's going to be like going to the library and checking out six books and not having to return them."

By helping kids build home libraries, the foundation wants to help close the "book gap."

In Houston, about 80 percent of public school kids are economically disadvantaged - and for low-income families, books are often an out-of-reach luxury. My Home Library will help kids be able to keep reading during spring break, summer and other times they don't have access to the school library.

The Barbara Bush Houston foundation negotiated prices to offer books from Scholastic and three Houston publishers: Arte Publico Press, Bright Sky Press and LongTale Publishing. Some of the titles were on display in the Browning auditorium Tuesday: "The Night Before First Grade," "If You Give a Moose a Muffin," "Family, Familia," "Mama Miti."

Smith wrote his own children's book last year, "Smitty Hits the Play Books." He knows what to say to pique kids' interest in reading.

"Who here likes football?" Smith asked Tuesday. Most of the students waved their hands. "Who here likes soccer? Who here likes Pokemon?"

At the word Pokemon, the squirming crowd went wild.

"Do you know that they have books about every last thing I just mentioned?" Smith said. "Whatever topic you can think of that you like, they have books about that stuff. ... If you have trouble reading or don't like it all that much, think of something that you like and read about that."

Later Tuesday morning, a group of celebrities read these some of these books to the students - a group tha included Herb Taylor, the former Kansas City Chiefs player who owns Ray's Real Pit BBQ Shack, Chantelle Anderson, a former WNBA player for the San Antonio Stars, and DJ Supastar from 93.7 The Beat

"All of these people love to read," Smith told the kids, "and all of them are successes - all of them have lived out their dreams in some fashion."