Many reasons exist for these challenges in providing adequate literacy instruction within the school context. For example, a World Bank study found an average 19 percent teacher absence rate across Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda; and many teachers who were physically present were not spending their time teaching in the classroom (Chaudhury, Hammer, Kremer, Muralidharan, & Rogers, 2006). The most proximal contexts (i.e., a child's home and community) have a direct influence on literacy development. Numerous initiatives are underway globally to try to improve children's literacy development, including interventions that work through parents, families, and communities. These initiatives are intended to supplement children's school-based learning or provide alternatives for children who do not have access to pre-primary or primary education. Examples of such interventions include tutoring and peer-assisted learning, mobile libraries, programs to build parental knowledge on how to support children's literacy, literacy instruction outside regular schools (e.g., in the context of religious education), and the provision of educational media for use outside regular classroom instruction. There are numerous such interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), but there is little information regarding which interventions have evidence for (or against) their effectiveness, and what that evidence reveals. Therefore, this review is focused on evidence of what works to improve children's literacy development in LMICs, with interventions that are focused on children between 3 and 12 years old and work through parents, families, and communities.