Since September, we have been partnering with FathersRead365, a nonprofit, run by the incredible Author Brent Johnstone and Akeiff Staples, two dads determined to get books to Philly kids who need them most. Check out their latest video: https://www.fox29.com/video/1183977

FathersRead356 has withdrawn 12,547 books from the Book Bank since the school year started, making them one of our most powerful partners. Akeiff and Brent go directly into the schools, creatively putting books directly into the hands of the youngest scholars!

• DROP your books off at the Book Bank in Pennsauken, 7300 N. Crescent Blvd #10, so we can continue irrigate book deserts and spread book-wealth!
• START a book drive!
• UPCYCLE your books!

What a successful book drive! Thank you, Cathy - owner of Main Point Books in Wayne, PA - for sponsoring a drive that prompted several dozen patrons and neighbors to clear off their shelves and conveniently donate children's and grown up books! 

We gathered over 3,000 books which will help fuel our mission of getting books into the homes and hands of children living in book deserts throughout Philadelphia and New Jersey.   

The NJEA Convention was a hit! Sharing a panel with LeVar Burton before thousands of people was invigorating and inspiring.  And thanks to a generous grant from the NJEA, the BookSmiles team distributed 10,000 new books to over 4,000 teachers. 

So great to be featured on a local station, and my Senior Project class is in the mix.  And better yet to be introduced by the legendary Jim Gardner!

A huge shout-out to our new partners, Trenton's Parents Engaging Parents.  Coordinator Gabby Douglas was the very first to pick up books at our soon-to-open Book Bank in Pennsauken.

Here are her words: "Parents Engaging Parent Book bag giveaway was a success! Our goal was to help soften the financial burden that Covid-19 and inflation is causing. Our partnership with BookSmiles and Tona Buck helped us to provide families with over 300 books & boxes sanitary products! We engaged with other parents & community leaders & had fun!!! Thanks to all the volunteers."

Matthew Strauss was one of the first kids to borrow a bin and do a book drive shortly after we opened the Book Bank. He was 10.
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Three years later, well after earning BookSmiles Ambassador status, he coordinated a drive among several swim clubs, yielding an insane 10,525 books. Way to go, Matthew! Your total count is 16,290!

What an honor to receive the NPO Community Partner of the Year!  We met new friends and I was able to share BookSmiles' vision and action with other important nonprofit organizations across New Jersey.  

The mayor of Cherry Hill, Susan Shin Angulo, visited our first pop-up collection station, where we used our truck to collect over 2,000 books! Thank you for hosting, Republic Bank.  Let's do it again! 

​BookSmiles makes it convenient and fun for people to donate their book-wealth. Do you know where we can park the truck for a few hours, to have people come from far and wide to fill it?  Please contact larry@booksmiles.org.

A big thanks to Berkshire Hathaway Realtor Lisa Budnick for inviting BookSmiles to The Philadelphian.  We closed out a library estate for one of her clients. 
BookSmiles is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit orgainzation, so we can furnish donors with a receipt for tax purposes. 

​Here are the most desired books:

• High quality literature and classics.
• Signed first editions by prominent authors
• Books published before the Civil War.
• Leather bound books.  
• Older interesting books with immaculate dust jackets
• Biographies and books about specific history
• Popular/influential authors in the vein of Stephen King, Diana Gabaldon, KurtVonnegut, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, Winston Churchill, James Baldwin, George R.R. Martin, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, and all the authors English and history majors had in college.

Please contact larry@booksmiles.org to make arrangements to donate.