CLEVELAND, Ohio (WEWS) — It’s a book so many people know and love — "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."

For 5-year-old Zion Crenshaw, the book is a much-needed escape.

“It’s the little things that make people happy,” said mom Shawanna Crenshaw.

Her six children and foster children are all patients at MetroHealth in Cleveland, Ohio.

She brought Zion in for his wellness check and shots.

The books in the waiting room and the books handed to him by the doctor when he leaves make a big difference.

“If they’re getting a shot, they’re sitting there reading a book, it relaxes my children,” Shawanna said. “So I’m glad the books are there.”

They’re in the doctor's office because of a national nonprofit called Reach Out and Read, founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert Needleman, a physician at MetroHealth.

“He thought about, 'What if we put books in the waiting room, what would happen?' And the books disappeared,” explained Lynn Foran, executive director of Reach Out and Read Greater Cleveland.

So from there, they started including them in child wellness checks.

More than 200 doctors and nurse practitioners across nearly 40 locations in greater Cleveland are trained in early literacy by Reach Out and Read.

There are books in the waiting room, exam rooms, and stacks and stacks of books, free to grab on your way out.

Pediatrician Dr. Anna Winfield has been part of the program for decades. She said the improvements she sees are remarkable.

“Ten years ago, I would give people a book and they would say, ‘That’s the only book I have at home’ and now you give them books and they say, ‘Oh I have plenty of books’ — but they still need more!” Winfield said.

Research shows reaching kids at an early age helps with kindergarten readiness, parental engagement, and is even beneficial for maternal well-being.

Book "prescriptions" detailing specific reading material can even help parents feel more at ease.

“I think a lot of our parents who are at higher risk for low literacy get nervous about reading with their kids because they’re not confident in their own skills,” Winfield explained. “And if you show them what to do with the book and their kid, their eyes kind of light up.”

The key to Reach Out and Read’s success has been rolling the importance of literacy into well-child visits, talking about it at the same level as safe sleep and good nutrition, and partnering with doctors who are trusted by families.

“They’re the messengers,” Foran said. “And parents, as you know being a mom of young children, you look to their advice and guidance to help you support the healthy development of your child.”

Reach Out and Read targets children six months to 5 years old. It has reached more than 4.2 million children across the country

This story was originally reported by Homa Bash on news5cleveland.com.

THE PLAINS, Ohio —

Before Joe Burrow was an NFL star, he was a small-town kid growing up in southeastern Ohio.

Those who have coached him along the way say Burrow has not forgotten where he came from.

Sam Smathers coached Burrow as a youth. Smathers assisted author Scott Burson in writing "From Bulldog to Bengal: The Joe Burrow Story Through the Eyes of His Hometown."

Ahead of its release, Smathers walked WLWT through the making of a champion.

"We're just, we're very proud, very proud of him. He's just Joe," Smathers said.

Plains, Ohio is where it all started for Burrow.

Smathers has video footage from when Burrow was a quarterback in third grade. With no one open downfield, he decided to run the ball.

Videos from sixth grade show Burrow executing more plays.

"They bring back all the memories. All the memories come back," Smathers said as he watched a highlight reel. "I've watched him grow up, and I've watched damn near every game he's ever played.

Fast forward to high school, Burrow became more competitive.

"He was very competitive in practice and the game, but he wasn't a rah-rah guy," Smathers said.

Burrow led by example.

"Everybody can see that. He's a silent leader," Smathers said.

Burrow led Athens High School to the playoffs and the state championship his senior year.

"That whole group of kids that came through there was just a talented group. You get that every so often, a good group of kids coming through, and Joe was part of that," Smathers said.

Burrow also excelled in basketball. Academics came easy to him. Teachers described him as shy and likeable. Students voted him most likely to become famous in addition to most athletic.

Smathers gives a lot of credit to Burrow's parents, Jim and Robin Burrow.

"They're just that type of people. Down to earth, well-grounded, and that's where Joey gets it," Smathers said. "He hasn't forgotten. He knows where he's from. He's proud of where he's from. I know he is," Smathers said.

That was evident throughout college at Louisiana State University and during his Heisman trophy moment, where he highlighted the issue of food insecurity in Athens County.

"People here understand that he's fed a lot of people, and they're very grateful for what he's done here," Smathers said.

And what he continues to do as a Cincinnati Bengal.

"When we win it, we're gonna win it, and it'll be our way, and way we're going to do it," Smathers said.

Smathers said he helped write the book with blessings from Burrow and his parents.

It's set to be released in the spring.

More information can be found, here.

NEW YORK —

A New York family who came together by chance 21 years ago has now shared their remarkable story in a children's book.

Pete Mercurio was walking out the door to meet his then-partner (now husband) Danny Stewart for dinner in August 2000 when his phone rang. It was Stewart, calling to tell him he'd be late. He'd found an abandoned baby in the subway and had called 911 from a payphone.

Stewart, a social worker, had spotted a tiny bundle wrapped in a sweatshirt while walking through an eerily empty station. At first, he thought it was a doll, perhaps left behind by a child, until he saw a tiny leg move. He quickly discovered it was a newborn baby, the umbilical cord still attached.

Mercurio, who authored a book about this chance encounter, spoke to CNN about that night, and about how he and Stewart ended up raising the baby as their own.

The baby boy was just hours old when Stewart found him

"He had actually tried to get on an express train and couldn't get on one," Mercurio recalls of Stewart's path that fateful day. "The fact that he even got on a local was kind of miraculous because who knows if he had gotten on an express if he'd even he even had found the baby."

Mercurio says something made Stewart glance back at the bundle and see the newborn's small motion. The baby, a boy, was alive and breathing. Authorities said he was just hours old when they arrived.

Mercurio ran to the station, a block away from his apartment, and found Stewart there with two police officers.

"One of them was carrying the baby in his arms," he says. "Just a chill raced up my spine. Like, it's an unbelievable thing."

The baby boy was transported to a nearby hospital, and the men were overcome with emotion at what had just occurred.

"At one point I just turned to Danny and I said, 'You're going to be -- we're going to be -- connected to this baby in some way or another for the rest of your life.' I said, 'Maybe not tomorrow or next week or a year or five years from now, but eventually he's gonna learn about this night and he might want to try to find you and maybe we can send a gift or be in touch with him on this day, every year.'"

The couple had no idea what was about to unfold.

A stroke of good luck smoothed the adoption process

The baby, who was named Daniel Ace Doe after Stewart and the A/C/E subway line, was in the state's care while a citywide search was underway for the boy's parents.

Three months later, Stewart was asked to testify at a hearing about the day the baby was found. The judge asked him an unexpected question.

"In December of 2000, at that hearing, the judge asked him, 'Would you be interested in adopting?' He said, 'Yes, but I know it's not that easy.' She said, 'Well, it can be.' We didn't know what she meant by that," Mercurio says.

The two became foster parents to the baby, who they named Kevin, and adopted him two years later in December of 2002.

"And then that was it. We never saw the judge again. And in 2012, when we were deciding to get married, Kevin on a walk to school said he knew that there was a judge involved in creating our family," Mercurio says.

"We shared everything with him, so he knew everything. He said, 'Don't judges marry people?' So, I said, 'Do you want to meet the judge that finalized your adoption?' And he nodded his head. And so that's how I got in touch with the judge again, ten years later."

When the couple spoke with the judge, they asked her how she was able to help facilitate Kevin's adoption so quickly.

In one of many small miracles that brought Kevin to them, the judge said that at the time Kevin was found there was a pilot program in New York that gave her the authority to expedite the adoption process in specific cases of abandonment to place a baby in a loving home.

"She was able to make quick decisions to place that baby in a pre-adoptive home as quickly as possible," Mercurio says. "So he didn't languish in the system."

That pilot program lasted only six months and was then discontinued, according to Mercurio.

"So many little things like that added up without our knowledge," Mercurio says.

Kevin is now a senior in college. He's not sure about trying to find his birth parents

At the time Kevin arrived, the couple didn't have a lot of money. They were in student-loan debt, but they made it work. Family and friends got them everything they needed for Kevin, and they figured it out along the way.

Kevin, now 21, is a student at Swarthmore College. Mercurio is sharing their family's story with Kevin and Stewart's encouragement, but they declined to be interviewed.

"We still can't believe it. I mean, we believe it because we have a 21-year-old kid that's graduating from college this spring," Mercurio says. "I love this kid more than anything in the world, I really didn't know this kind of love existed in this world until my son came into our life. And Danny feels the same way."

As Kevin grew up, the two discussed their family story with him.

"We talked about how our family became a family openly in front of him. When he went in social gatherings, [if] anybody would ask, we didn't shield him from hearing it from a very young age," Mercurio says.

They wanted Kevin to feel positive about their family origin story, so Mercurio wrote a book about it that they read to him every night. When he was five, Kevin realized it was about him.

"I pasted together a book of his story, which tells the whole thing about Danny being on the subway and the baby being found," Mercurio says.

Last year, that very personal story was published with the title "Our Subway Baby," which Mercurio calls a "love letter to our son."

While Kevin's biological parents are still unknown, Mercurio says they feel only compassion for them.

"One way or another, that's a desperate measure to take. And I can only imagine the anguish that was leaving your child," he says. "We've always told Kevin from a very young age that he was left out of love, so that he could be found and cared for. We never used the word abandonment or abandoned. We said she left you where you could be found by us."

CHICAGO, Ill. — At a time when legislation is being written that affects people who are transgender or nonbinary, one who doesn’t identify exclusively with any gender, young influencers are sharing their own stories.

A series of books written by teenagers aims to help foster understanding and clarity about what it means to come out as a young person and thrive.

Gia Parr, 17, came out as transgender three years.

“I've always known I was a girl since I was two,” she said. “I just didn't really have the words for it.”

Now a high school senior, the teen has found those words and put them to paper as one of the co-authors of "A Kids Book About Being Transgender."

“The word ‘transgender,’ I feel like it can be such an adult term and it can sound so scary,” said Parr. “And to put it in words meant for kids and to be able to educate them is so important.”

The books are being released as part of global storytelling campaign led by 18 young people like Parr from around the country.

“Most people in our country tell us they've never met anyone who identifies as transgender or nonbinary,” said Jen Grosshandler, the co-founder of the GenderCool Project.

The nonprofit advocacy group is collaborating on the campaign with the publishing company A Kids Book About.

“It's going to help people really see this incredible growing community for the beauty and positivity of who they are,” said Grosshandler.

The youth-led GenderCool movement was inspired by Grosshandler’s own family. Her youngest child, Chazzie, proudly identifies as transgender.

“I find it so important as just a 14-year-old for someone to accept me for the way I am and who I am,” said Chazzie Grosshandler.

The series of books share personal stories about being transgender – but also nonbinary. The third book in the series tackles inclusivity.

“Our books, they fundamentally work as conversation starters, not conversations enders,” said Jelani Memory, the founder of A Kids Book About.

“These young people, they want to be seen as individuals, as people, as fine and OK the way they are, that they are happy, that they're healthy, that they're whole. And that's really true about all of our books,” said Memory.

For teens like Chazzie, she hopes the positivity of this storytelling series will be eye-opening for people of all ages.

“It just, it means a lot to me,” said Grosshandler. “And I know there's so many people in the world who aren't accepted, and I just hope that they know that they are loved for who they are.”

Parr says her dream is to return to her elementary school to read her book and support others.

“It would have been really important for a student like me sitting wondering ‘why am I like this or who am I? Why do I feel so quote unquote, different from my peers?’ To know that they are in good hands,” she said.

All three books are already available for pre-order and expected to hit bookshelves in June – just in time for pride month.