BookUp

Where lifelong readers begin

These kids are readers. Not reading for show, or reading because someone required, but reading because they love it.

—Mitchell S. Jackson, former BookUp teaching artist and author of The Residue Years

BookUp students celebrate on a field trip to Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, NY. Photo credit: Jordan Smith

BookUp, the National Book Foundation’s flagship educational program, believes reading for pleasure has a direct and substantial impact on young people’s success in school and careers. During after-school and summer programs, BookUp connects middle- and high-school students with local authors and runs free reading groups designed to improve participants’ social, emotional, and literacy skills. Young people also interact directly with the local literary community through author visits and field trips to libraries, museums, and bookstores.

Since its start in 2007, BookUp has given away over 35,000 free books, and each year helps 500 students build their first home libraries. In addition to books that groups select and read together in a book club–style format, students are given a budget to purchase books of their choosing during shopping trips to local bookstores. The program currently serves students at over a dozen different sites in New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Greensboro, NC, and Huntsville, TX.

Carolyn Ferrucci

Jordan E. Franklin

Leah Lakins

Sheila Maldonado

Amanda Nowlin-O'Banion

Jassmine Parks

Viviana Prado-Núñez

Matthew Thompson

Ivan Velez

Jeffery Weatherford

Susie Wilde
BookUp participants at a workshop in 2018. Photo credit: Christian Rodriguez

New York City: School Year

Detroit, MI

In partnership with InsideOut Literary Arts Project

Greensboro, NC

In partnership with the Greensboro Public Library Foundation

Communities in Schools at Jackson Middle School

Huntsville, TX

Huntsville Intermediate School

For the 2020-21 school year, BookUp is going virtual! BookUp@Home will include monthly Virtual Author Visits featuring student-generated Q+As with prominent authors of young people’s literature. National Book Foundation is pleased to make our BookUp Virtual Author Visits open to the public at no cost. Middle and high school students are welcome to join us!

Registration is required. Please register here.

21oct4:00 pm5:00 pmBookUp@Home with Lilliam Rivera4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EST

11nov4:00 pm5:00 pmBookUp@Home with Rita Williams-Garcia4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET

09dec4:00 pm5:00 pmBookUp@Home with Ibi Zoboi4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET

20jan4:00 pm5:00 pmBookUp@Home with Traci Chee4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET

10feb4:00 pm5:00 pmBookUp@Home with Christopher Paul Curtis4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET

17mar4:00 pm5:00 pmBookUp@Home with Kacen Callender4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET

21apr4:00 pm5:00 pmBookUp@Home with Jarrett Krosoczka4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET

19may4:00 pm5:00 pmBookUp@Home with Pablo Cartaya4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET

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