The Power of a Book

Aim: We want to end childhood book poverty. We run free, inspiring & inclusive book gifting events, gifting books to children who need them most.

Children’s Book Project

We are a lean, grassroots, volunteer-powered charity that understands the enormous power that reading has in shaping children’s lives. We have an ambition to eradicate book poverty and believe that, regardless of their circumstances, every child deserves access to inspiring reading material, expanding their perspective on the world and helping them to fulfil their potential.

We collect new and lightly used books from families and publishers and gift them onwards to children growing up in poverty, often with very few books of their own or none at all. Almost a million children in the UK do not own a book and every copy donated to us can help another child to see themselves as a reader. 

We work with hundreds of settings annually, including schools, prisons, food banks, community groups and women’s groups to run free, inspirational and memorable book gifting events, gifting hundreds of thousands of books.

Funding of £5,000 will allow for a ‘Pop up Bookshop’ event to be held at 12 carefully targeted primary schools, gifting circa 10,000 books to 4,800 children.

For literacy to flourish, access to books is essential. 

OECD research has shown that reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s life outcomes, more so than their family circumstance, parents’ educational background or income. Children who read regularly are more likely to be happier, healthier and experience better mental wellbeing and self-esteem. Improved family engagement also supports conversations about books at home and motivates shared reading.

"This gifting programme shows our children that they deserve to own these lovely books". Head Teacher, W10

By the age of 11, those from book-poor homes (those with fewer than 10 books) are found to be 12 months behind their peers in terms of literacy and language development. These children have fewer chances to chat with their parents about what they see in the illustrations of a beautiful picture book, to recite new facts or favourite lines by heart or to identify with characters in a favourite story.

We believe that, regardless of their circumstances, every child deserves access to inspiring reading material, expanding their perspective on the world and helping them to fulfil their potential.

One million children do not own a book of their own

We support the most socio-economically disadvantaged families in London, Leeds and Birmingham as categorised by extremely high percentages of children in receipt of FSMs, school-based food bank usage and schools aiding displaced families or those seeking asylum. On average, 54% of households at our partner schools receive income support, with many further families ‘getting by’ but still without enough even for essentials. In addition, many of the pupils we gift to often have additional SEN or emotional needs and live in communities experiencing multi-generational poverty where aspirations and self-esteem are low.

‘Thank you again for allowing us to be a part of the project. Honestly, for our children it made such a difference. For many of them it was the first book they had ever owned. Families talked about creating a little family bookshop with all their children's books.’ Teacher, London NW1

There is a direct and proven correlation between book ownership in childhood and health, wealth and wellbeing outcomes in life and we want to ensure that all children, regardless of economic circumstance, have the opportunity to benefit from this.

The Power of Preloved

We offer a green solution to book poverty: finding powerful second homes for pre-loved books, lengthening their lifecycle and increasing their impact. 640,000 tons of books enter landfill annually, each producing methane as it decomposes. We help to ensure pre-loved children's books are reused and rehomed in book-poor communities.

When a used book is donated to us instead of being discarded, the impact is huge. Not only is the ROI of the original carbon investment improved; the book itself helps to eradicate childhood book poverty. Our free, inspirational and memorable book gifting events give thousands of children ownership of books that could otherwise have been pulped or sent to landfill. 

The Children’s Book Project is an ambitious charity with a single minded and clear aim. We want to end childhood book poverty. Over the next two years, and with the support of organisation's such as NHS Property, we have plans to continue to expand our work to achieve this aim.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 11th August 2025 at 1:08pm