From a bookshelf in Bethlehem to impoverished classrooms in foreign lands, Judith's Reading Room, a local non-profit, is working to send 10,000 children books halfway around the world.

A new world recently opened to Shamice Gonzalez.

"It has good details and action in it," said Gonzalez, 11, while talking about a recent book.

Casa Guadalupe in Allentown is an after-school haven for inner city youth.  Like many at the center, Gonzalez said she hated to read, but that's changed.

Cathy Lieber is a big part of that. Her non-profit, Judith's Reading Room, donated 2,300 books to the center.

"The kind of thing that gives them a connection to the world that I don't think they thought they had," said Lieber, who now wants to take what's happening here and replicate it all over the world.

Lieber has partnered with a similar-minded organization in California to deliver 10,000 children's books to Indonesia.

"You can't help kids read if they don't have the books," Lieber said.

The books, all donated, and all in English, are a way Lieber said, to not only help kids learn the language, but spread American goodwill in the process.

Judith's Library is a small room stacked with books in the south Bethlehem.

"These are going to Afghanistan and Kuwait for the Air Force," she said as she pointed to a stack of boxes.

Lieber started her campaign in 2010 to honor her deceased cousin. Aside from helping out the troops, Judith's Reading Room has sent books to India, Nigeria, and Mexico, anywhere she said where there's a need, including countless places in the Lehigh Valley.

Lieber's vision, at least locally, appears to be working.

"Absolutely, their grades are going up and reading is such important part of that," said Lucy Delebar, the executive director of Casa Guadalupe.

"It's truly a blessing. It's incredible what a book can do for someone," Lieber stated.