An Atlanta father’s library visit with his daughter sparked The Library Dads, a growing movement using books to bond fathers while boosting children’s literacy.
ATLANTA — Two years ago, an Atlanta man sat on the floor of a local library, gently cradling his newborn daughter.
She was just four months old, but already, this dad was searching for something the two could bond over together. Something that was just theirs.
Khari Arnold, founder of The Library Dads, soon found himself returning to the library each week, tucked into a reading routine. Arnold started to notice a difference not just in their relationship, but in his daughter Ariah’s development. Doctors said her vocabulary was over 20 times larger than that of her peers by 18 months old.
“When they’re in that infancy stage, it’s a lot easier for the moms to find their thing naturally,” said Arnold. “But I needed to find my thing, and it was going to be reading.”
Their father-daughter tradition became the foundation for The Library Dads, an Atlanta-based nonprofit redefining early literacy while empowering men through fatherhood. Founded by Arnold, the group draws dozens of dads across metro Atlanta and is grounded in three pillars: bonding, books, and brotherhood.
How The Library Dads began
After a full year of library visits, a realization took root within Arnold – more fathers should have access to this kind of experience. While Ariah grew faster cognitively, it was their bonding that kept Arnold coming back week after week.
“It was more like an epiphany,” said Arnold. “It dawned on me that this should be bigger than my daughter.”
Arnold immediately went public, launching The Library Dads on Instagram. The first meet-up was on July 20 last year.
“I could have easily left that ‘s’ off and made it just about Ariah and I,” emphasized Arnold. “It might have influenced a few people, but I’m trying to impact directly.”
The power of reading for relationship and cognitive development
For Arnold, his time with Ariah leaves a personal imprint as each book forms a new memory. One story in particular, “Little Bitty Friends,” shows a man giving a child a hug on the final page. Without fail, his daughter turns and looks at him expectantly, waiting for Arnold’s real-life hug to mirror the one on the page. Before long, Ariah started smiling before they even got to the page, already anticipating what was to come.
Those small moments – the hug at the end of a story, the funny bark Arnold reenacted for the dog in “My First Words” – built early foundations of love.
“She is jubilant, laughing, so happy and joyful,” said Arnold. “What more can you ask for when it comes to bonding with your kids?”
Winton Sharpe, treasurer of The Library Dads, first met Arnold at Westlake High School in Atlanta. Flash forward to today, Sharpe noticed similar positive growth after consistent reading with his two-and-a-half-year-old son, Kayden.
“Even sometimes if they don’t respond to the words that you’re saying, they’re still soaking it in,” said Sharpe. “My son is already saying four- or five-syllable words. He can stumble his way through ‘excavators’ and different things like that.”
For every dad, Arnold encourages time spent reading to go beyond bi-monthly meetings. Being a Library Dad is a mindset and lifestyle of positive change.
“The level which our kids are reading is a crisis,” said Arnold. “More corporations, more organizations, more individuals should be focusing on that because of how critical the ability to read is.”
He recommends countless resources for being a Library Dad, including audiobooks in the car, free apps like Hoopla and Libby, or playing YouTube channels with video read-alouds.
The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Foundation echoes this sentiment, noting that only 41% of metro Atlanta 3rd graders are proficient in reading. They emphasize that low literacy is a multi-generational problem.
“Literacy is one of the most powerful tools for addressing social inequality,” writes the foundation on its website. “Literacy is the cornerstone of both individual achievement and the broader success of Atlanta.”
Early educational milestones are predictors of lifelong academic achievement, and reading in particular is one of the most valuable skills developed in childhood, according to a National Library of Medicine study.
Inside a Library Dads event
The Library Dads host “library link-ups” one to two times a month at Fulton County locations, including Wolf Creek Library and East Point Library. Link-ups feature curated times for dads to read aloud to their kids, book giveaways, and space for men to share fatherhood experiences.
“I don’t want to say, ‘You can’t do it alone,’ because some people might hear that and think, ‘Well, I have a spouse, so I’m not doing it alone,’” said Arnold. “What we mean is, you need someone who can actually relate to your seat, to your journey, to what you’re going through as a dad.”
Activities are catered to kids ages 0 to 12 years old, according to The Library Dads’ website. All father figures are encouraged to attend, including stepdads, grandfathers, and other positive male figures.
To celebrate one year of The Library Dads, the nonprofit hosted its largest meeting yet on July 19 – the Ultimate Library Link-Up. One hundred Atlanta-area dads turned out with their kids, bringing the total attendance to around 200.
Recent meetups supplied dads with books of their own, encouraging them to go beyond reading aloud to their kids by modeling lifelong reading.
“When a child looks up and they see dad reading, they’re going to associate that with something they should do,” said Arnold. “Not just now, but also when they become an adult.”
What’s next for The Library Dads
The nonprofit hopes to expand across Atlanta and nationwide. As of now, they operate primarily in Fulton County, but Arnold has his eyes on a few counties in metro Atlanta for sustainable expansion in early 2026.
“We aren’t going to skip steps,” said Arnold. “I think we will be doing everyone a disservice if we did.”
Those fathers interested in joining can follow The Library Dads’ Instagram, website, and Eventbrite. They are taking a month off in August to recharge during the back-to-school season, but plan to announce link-up dates for September soon. Supporters of the nonprofit can also donate books by emailing them here.
“Don’t feel like you have to do this alone,” said Sharpe. “Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and join different groups. This fatherhood journey is a lot more fun together than it is alone.”