Charity scheme launches to donate pre-loved books to schools

Schools across the country can now sign up to the Children's Book Project to receive donations of pre-loved books from local families.

The scheme is supported by Book Buddy, a free service matching book donors with schools to help address "the book gap". Books can be used to populate classroom corners, replenish libraries and as gifts for children with fewer books of their own.

The idea came from author Maz Evans who set up Book Buddy in 2018. By partnering with the Children’s Book Project, it is hoped this will provide greater opportunities to reach parents and schools nationwide.

In April, more than 150 schools signed up to a pilot programme that saw more than 4,500 books being donated in just four weeks. From this month, schools across the country can sign up for the free service and receive posters, support with social media and inspiration on how they might use any books donated.

Liberty Venn, Children's Book Project founder, said: “We are thrilled to take forward Maz Evans’ concept, to make it easy for families to donate their pre-loved books and to help even more children to access books of their own.”

Evans added: "I am overjoyed to partner BookBuddy with the Children's Book Project so that together we can get more loved books into more hands that will love them. BookBuddy is a scheme that runs entirely on kindness — and there is so much around. I'm very excited for this next chapter in BookBuddy's story and it will be my privilege to work with the Children's Book Project to make sure every child can access the joy of books and reading."