This week, First Book Canada will be distributing more than 32,000 new books to children in need from communities across Ontario.

27 different schools and programs will be receiving books, including many local Toronto organizations. The books were donated by Disney Publishing Worldwide and Annick Press.

“We are thrilled to be able to get these new books from Annick Press and Disney into so many children’s hands just before the holidays,” said Tom Best, executive director of First Book Canada. “There are so many wonderful groups we work with that really are on the front lines, working with children every day who are starting life at an enormous disadvantage. By providing brand-new books to these children – often the first books of their own they’ve ever had – those groups are making a profound difference in their lives.”

First Book Canada is proud to be working with the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto. Families with children and young adults will receive books along with holiday food hampers at the food bank’s locations.

“If this pilot program is successful, we can roll it out to food banks across our city and the country,” Best said.

First Book Canada is a registered charity that distributes brand new children’s books from leading Canadian publishers to children from low income families across Canada. This year First Book Canada will place over 200,000 new books into the hands of children in need and is looking to step that number up significantly in 2012.

“It’s not only academic achievement that is tied to reading,” said Rick Wilks, founder and publisher of Annick Press. “Most of us are fortunate enough to recall that some of our happiest moments, our most satisfying encounters, are with the printed page. Reading is about fostering connections — to others, to our innermost selves and to the communities we live in. That’s why we support efforts to get good books to youth. It enriches all of us — and opens the gates to newly discovered pleasures and possibilities.”