LitLab

About us

LitLab was founded in October 2014 by Mialisa T. Bonta, former Executive Director of Bring Me A Book. We are an independent tax-exempt organization.

LitLab provides a combination of digital and in person resources to young children and their families by leveraging three critical components early learners need when building a strong learning foundation:
• Access to high quality interactive literacy resources
• Empowering relationships between children, family and educators
• Technologies that personalize learning and propel a child into reading success and a lifelong love of learning.

LitLab’s suite of programs encourage parents and caregivers to engage as the child’s first and most important teacher. LitLab seeks to:
• Influence access by providing parents with at-home bilingual books and learning tools. Outside of school skill practice increases school success. By increasing home learning opportunities, we influence the way children build knowledge for a lifetime.
• Influence action by using blended learning interventions to revolutionize education outcomes. For low-income millennial families learning must take place everywhere - at home and on the go - in real-time. 90% of low-income families have smartphones and data plans with mobile devices children use daily for an average of 2-3 hours of entertainment. We make screen time fun learning time for foundational skill learning and practice.

Kidappolis Program Suite:
• Kidappolis: Kidappolis is an app that enables parents to use screen time as deep learning time, through interactive, caregiver-led early learning opportunities. With kidappolis, caregivers walk children through a series of mini skill assessments to identify the child’s primary areas of need. Personalized, curated app recommendations foster specific early learning, literacy, and numeracy goals.
• Kidappolis Communities: The goal is to foster community partnerships with local resource/service providers with the aim of connecting families to high quality educational, health, wellness, and legal resources and programs that serve low-income families at scale; Worldreader Partnership: In August 2019, LitLab became the exclusive US distributor of the Worldreader eBook app. Through this partnership, kidappolis users gain access to more than 54,000 eBooks in multiple languages; Custom SMS/Texts Increase Outreach: LitLab tools facilitate scaled family engagement by taking advantage of the time between face-to-face interactions with customized messages from community partners.
• Kidappolis Books: Kidappolis school+ book Rotation Program: Our bilingual bookbag rotation component makes interactive reading accessible with an enriching easy-time-together experience for children and parents that stretches beyond the classroom. By pairing hardcover books with kidappolis, where families log weekly reading and track progress, we significantly influence the way children develop pathways for school achievement and success; Kidappolis Books: The bilingual kidappolis Books program provides community agencies, community centers, local medical, and legal aid offices with books from a curated list of Spanish/English bilingual titles. Families bring free books home and establish a reading routine with their child. Paired with kidappolis to track weekly reading and progress, free bilingual home libraries encourage out-of-school literacy and numeracy practice, within a family supported pro-literacy environment.

Imber Anakata is the Finance & Operations Manager of LitLab.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.