The most powerful and highest-impact way to improve reading levels is to give children access to books.* Books are at the heart of language acquisition, and reading is the foundation for all academic subjects. When children know how to read, their confidence increases, empathy towards others grows, and they demonstrate an overall improved academic success. Through our partnerships with teachers and schools, Book Fairies brings high-interest, current books into classrooms and libraries, and assists in building home libraries for students in high-need districts. Book Fairies strives to empower children by creating a culture of literacy and nurturing a love of reading.

Once a month, we open our Book Bank to educators from schools and nonprofit organizations working with individuals living in under-resourced communities. Attendees select as many of our carefully sorted books as they can during a 1-hour time slot. Typically, 12,000-20,000 books are distributed at each event, helping to increase access to books for people across Long Island and New York City.

Established in 2021, this program was designed to provide targeted, multi-year support to teachers, schools, and community organizations working in under-resourced communities. Through a combination of Student Book Fairs, customized deliveries to teachers, and giveaways to promote reading during school breaks, we are helping to build home, classroom, and school libraries and are working to foster a culture of literacy across the community.

We supply, maintain, and refresh book collections in a variety of locations, including public bookshelves at health centers, public parks, LIRR stations, grocery stores, shelves at pediatric doctors’ offices, before- and after-school programs, transitional housing, soup kitchens, women’s shelters, and community centers. We also deliver paperback books to organizations working with individuals in the correctional system.

Throughout the year, we support specific requests for book giveaways, such as summer reading initiatives, community events, and school-wide distributions at sites that are not already part of our school/community partnership program.

We pack books in fair to average condition for partner organizations to ship overseas and support literacy needs in under-resourced countries. Over our history, our books have found homes in countries in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. Our current partner reaches under-resourced schools in Somaliland, Sierra Leone, and Ghana, which face a high demand for children’s books in English.

* U.S. Department of Education, Educational Resources Information Center. America’s Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy. By Sanford Newman et al., Report no. PS028-585, Washington, D.C., Educational Resources Information Center, 2000