Guest blogger, Kellie Cairns, is the co-chair of First Book – Los Angeles and the creator and director of Book Buddies, a literacy program of the Molina Foundation. She is known to thousands of children simply as “The Book Lady” and is proud to call herself a friend of First Book.

Actress Jennie Garth helps launch the ninth annual Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories Program by reading to children in Los Angeles
Beaming faces of young children greeted actress and literacy advocate Jennie Garth at the Pico Union Library in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday morning.
There to celebrate the launch of the ninth annual Cheerios® Spoonfuls of Stories® program, Jennie read to her eager audience of children and their parents from the book, “All the World” by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee.
Cheerios, a longtime partner of First Book, also announced a donation of 5,000 books that will be distributed to children throughout the Los Angeles area. Members of First Book – Los Angeles were in attendance and gratefully acknowledged the donation of the books to the community.
After the book reading, Jennie – a mother of three girls, helped distribute Cheerios book bags filled with books to the children in attendance. One mother was seen wiping tears from her eyes as her child clutched her books to her chest. “This means so much to us, and to our kids. Thank you so much for this special day!”