“They Can’t Put the Words Together”: Darius Williams Sees the Human Cost of America’s Book Deserts
For culinary teacher Darius Williams, the reading crisis is not an abstract statistic. He sees students struggle to follow written directions, understand recipes and connect words into meaning.
“They can’t put the words together” is a simple observation that points to a much larger problem: book deserts.

A book desert is a community where children and families have limited access to books because of poverty, distance, inadequate libraries, transportation barriers or the cost of buying books. Unite for Literacy’s U.S. Book Desert Map estimates book access by looking at whether households are likely to have at least 100 books.

Research has found dramatic differences in book access between wealthy and low-income communities. In one study, researchers found roughly one children’s book for every 300 children in a high-poverty neighborhood, compared with about 13 books per child in a high-income community.

10 States Where Book Deserts Deserve Attention
There is no official ranking of the “top 10 book-desert states.” Book deserts often exist within states, cities and neighborhoods. Still, these states stand out because book scarcity intersects with poverty, rural isolation or persistent literacy challenges.
Mississippi — Research found Mississippi was the only state where every county had 20% or fewer homes with 100 or more books.
Louisiana — Parts of the state face persistent poverty, limited educational resources and significant reading challenges.
West Virginia — Rural and Appalachian communities can face transportation and resource barriers to books and libraries.
Alabama — In Coosa County, federal grant documents cited estimates that only 22% of households had more than 100 books.
Arkansas — Rural communities can face limited access to bookstores, libraries and affordable children’s books.
New Mexico — Rural isolation, poverty and the need for culturally and linguistically relevant books make access especially important.
Tennessee — The state’s Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has become a major example of putting free books directly into children’s homes.
Kentucky — Appalachian communities have a long history of limited library and book access.
Oklahoma — Rural geography can leave families many miles from libraries, bookstores and other sources of reading material.
Texas — The state’s enormous size creates major differences between communities. Some have abundant resources, while rural and high-poverty areas can face significant barriers to books. In 2024, 43% of Texas fourth graders scored below the Basic level in NAEP reading.
More Than a Reading Problem
A book desert is about more than test scores.
For a culinary student, literacy means being able to read a recipe, understand measurements, follow safety instructions and learn a new skill. For a teenager, it can mean understanding a job application, lease or workplace manual.

That is why access matters.

Children cannot become confident readers through encouragement alone. They need books in their homes, classrooms, libraries and communities.

The goal should not simply be to eliminate book deserts. It should be to create book-rich communities, where every child can easily find books that are free, interesting and relevant to their lives.

For Williams, the stakes are visible in the classroom. When a student cannot connect the words on a page, the problem may not be a lack of intelligence or ambition.

Sometimes, the child simply hasn’t had enough words within reach.

And changing that can begin with something remarkably simple:

Put a book in the child’s hands.