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.

"SJ Boys Read has collected over 8000 books since placing our BookSmiles bin at Moorestown Hardware! We are grateful to Julie and Pete Bender, owners of Moorestown Hardware for hosting the bin for nearly two years! We also have a collection bin in front of Moorestown High School.  Here we are with BookSmiles Founder Larry Abrams and Moorstown Mayor Nichole Gillespie.

Please continue to donate your gently used children's books (infant to high school) to this great cause. Your book donations go to teachers and kids in need in our area.
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We truly appreciate the continued generosity of our friends and neighbors in Moorestown."

These are pictures from classrooms in the Dominican Republic, where cases of BookSmiles books recently landed. Here is Backpacks of Dreams volunteer Jeanette Alvarez affixing stickers as she prepares for the trip. Note the Spanish titles. See Jeanette sitting with happy children!

​BookSmiles has committed to supplying books for next year's trip to the DR. Won't you consider donating so that we can provide more books? Just visit our website and learn how: www.booksmiles.org

​It's a good day when Congressman Donald Norcross, Commissioner Melinda Hopkins Kane, and Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Shin Angulo tour the Book Bank with the 2020 and 2021 New Jersey Teachers of the Year, Angel Santiago 2020-2021 New Jersey State Teacher of the Year and Kimberly Dickstein Hughes.
A big thanks to Congressman Norcross donating overstock children's books from The Library of Congress!

Congressman Donald Norcrossand I are discussing a A Fish Out Of Water by Helen Palmer. Did you know she was Dr. Seuss' wife? Something clicked, because we both LOVED this book growing up. Books forge connections.

The Congressman asked me in front of the group why I thought actual paper books are better for young children than the electronic types. How you think I answered?
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So grateful for the visit and that he donated books from The Library of Congress' surplus books program. Who's been to the Library of Congress and what sticks?

Congressman Andy Kim came to visit the Book Bank on a recent Sunday giveaway.  He and his family helped sort! 

​It was great having BookSmiles Board Members, BookSmiles Ambassadors Jake and Connor, the Medford Democrat Club, Mighty Writers Executive Director Leila Jackson, and loads of other friends, supporters and volunteers ALL TOGETHER.  

Food deserts and book deserts are insidious and intertwined. Let's irrigate them!