Southwest Human Development publishes book, donates more books to families

“This Little Farmer Went to Market” is the second book published by Southwest Human Development. Their goal is to help promote early literacy to make improvements and put more high-quality children’s books in the hands of young children.

Southwest Human Development, one of the nation’s largest nonprofits, is dedicated to early childhood development. With every book purchased, a book is then donated to families in need.

Jake Adams, Chief Development Officer of Southwest Human Development, and B.G. Hennessy, author of the book, spoke with us about “This Little Farmer Went to Market.”

“Southwest Human Development is probably the nation’s largest early childhood nonprofit. We’re focused on young kids, ages 0 to 5. We have over 40 programs, and one of the things we incorporate into every one of those programs is early literacy,” Adams said.

The organization published their own book after several rounds of deciding which manuscript would eventually be chosen for the book.

“This is actually my 40th book that I’ve published,” Hennessy said, “The first book and this book were the only two I submitted blind, meaning nobody knew who the author was, so it’s kind of a nice book end there.”

This book is a take on when the Little Piggy went to market. Hennessy said she enjoys taking rhymes children know and, in this case, taking the idea of food and explaining where it comes from.

“When you buy a copy of the book, the book costs $17.99. You can buy it on our website, swhd.org, at Changing Hands Bookstore and also on Amazon. What we do is we take all of the profits from that and purchase books for children,” Adams said.

Southwest Human Development gives out over 120,000 brand new children’s books per year, according to Adams.