The city of Tempe has received 16,000 free books from the Molina Foundation and Read On Arizona.

Tempe is one of six "accelerated zones" where the focus is on higher literacy education in low-performance schools. Several low-income families don’t have access to many books at home. 

“So many of our low-income families and children just do not have a lot of books in their homes. And children don’t have access to them. Yes, they can check books out at the library, but that really is not the same as having your own books," said Ann Lynn DiDomenico, the chair of Read On Tempe.

She also says by the time students enter fourth grade, they're expected to be able to read proficiently. Schools are focused on textbooks and students need to know how to read to understand the material.