Read to Grow, based in Branford, was founded in 1998 by Roxanne Coady, owner of Madison’s RJ Julia Booksellers, with the understanding of how critical it is to begin building literacy at birth.

In its first year, the non-profit organization provided a book to every child born at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Today, 14 years later, Read to Grow provides books for all infants born in a dozen hospitals throughout the state.

As Read to Grow continues to expand its services and reach, one thing that hasn’t changed, besides its mission, is the author of the books that are gifted to newborns and their families.

Nancy Elizabeth Wallace of Branford wrote and illustrated Read to Grow’s first book for babies: Rabbit’s Bedtime (1999), followed by Baby Day! (2003)—both published by Houghton Mifflin. And she is also the proud author of Welcome to the World! written expressly for Read to Grow with illustrations by Marsela Hajadinjak-Krec of Zagreb, Croatia.

The colorful, engaging, rhyming new board book will be introduced at Read to Grow’s annual New Haven fundraising luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 20, at which Coady will lead a discussion about the impact of literacy on poverty and health with Governor Dannel Malloy and Marna Bergstrom, president and CEO of Yale-New Haven Health System.

Wallace brings a lot of experience and enthusiasm to promoting early literacy. She has a master’s degree in child development from UConn, coordinated the Child Life Program at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and has written and illustrated 24 picture books.

She donated the text of Welcome to the World! to Read to Grow and says her hope for the book is that it will be “a joyful welcome to babies and a promise to read and snuggle and sing and play every day.”

Wallace is pleased by how her words and Hajdinjak-Krec’s artwork complement each other.

“Marsela’s gorgeous art and the colors she used are loving and warm,” Wallace says. “The details in the art are delightful and offer opportunities for expanding on the story and using the words and art in creative ways.”

She says she purposely left the verbs “open” so that parents and children can connect on their own personal level. For example:

We’ll sing songs, share poems, and rhymes.

“Some parents may sing opera or rock and roll tunes—it doesn’t have to be children’s songs.”

Read to Grow believes that the key to building literacy is for parents and grandparents to interact with children from an early age, whether it’s reading stories, telling one’s own stories, talking, singing, or playing. This is what the illustrations and text of the book convey, along with the last two pages, which give parents ideas for getting the most out of reading with one’s child. This section was written by Priscilla Russo, hospital coordinator for Read to Grow; Erin Spaulding, child life specialist; and Christine Mace, child life specialist at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Wallace stresses the importance of the “physical-ness of a book.”

“eBooks don’t provide the opportunities for intimacy and physical contact of a real book,” she says. “Human interaction is being eroded if you’re just mechanically pushing a button on [a device]. The reader—whether the child or the adult—brings something to the book.”

Wallace uses her own childhood as a case in point for why she is such an avid reader, writer, and artist.

“My parents were both great readers,” she says. “There were always piles of books for them and for me, trips to the library to bring home stacks of books to read and peruse. I loved to write and draw and read, and spent hours looking at the art and photographs in books.”

The “prescription” Wallace gives parents is to read to their children every day.

“It makes such a difference in growth of vocabulary, in long-term implications—it’s life-changing,” she stresses.

“I feel unending gratitude to everyone at Read to Grow for their dedication, caring, and vision,” she adds. “They are a gift to our state, and being part of Read to Grow has been a life gift for me.”

The Read to Grow luncheon is from noon to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 20 at the New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. Individual seats are $100. Corporate and group tables and student sponsorships are available. Seating is limited; to register, call 203-488-6800 or visit www.readtogrow.org.