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

Isabel Lucía Guinn

Leah Lakins

Amanda Nowlin-O'Banion

Jassmine Parks

Rajdeep Paulus

Viviana Prado-Núñez

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

Faculty Name

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