Episode 6: The Children’s Book Project

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Teachers, and children receiving free books along with volunteers and board members helping gather and index all the books

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“I love this book, do you have another one about dinosaurs?”

In this episode we feature the voices of Emily Maksymiuk the Managing Director along with Board Members Risa Schwartz and Maureen McCarthy of the Children’s Book Project. Over the last 28 years The Children's Book Project has given away free books for children who need them. Additionally, all those who serve children and need books such as teachers, public-health workers, childcare providers, homeless shelter staff, and parents from all over the Bay Area can select an unlimited number of free books. Some of the books are donated by publishers, authors, and booksellers. However almost all of the books that are in high demand such as picture books, early readers, books in Spanish must be bought new.

Emily Maksymiuk

Emily Maksymiuk is Managing Director of the Children’s Book Project in San Francisco. Living a literary life, her path and passions are tailor-made for the role and advancing the Children’s Book Project’s mission: getting books to children who need them.

Inspired by storybook characters, such as Hermione Granger, Anne Shirley and Jo March, Emily went on to earn a Master of Education in Children’s Literature and Literacies from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where she focused on imaginative play as a form of multimodal storytelling to support literacy development. Her childhood, growing up in poverty in rural Virginia, 22 miles from the nearest library, gives her first-hand experience of what it’s like living in a book desert. Emily relates to the low-income children that Children’s Book Project serves, many of whose families can’t afford to buy children’s books. At Children’s Book Project, she prioritizes sourcing and distributing diverse, inclusive, and multilingual books -- so that children can see themselves reflected and represented in the stories; developing character while developing literacy.

Prior to joining Children’s Book Project, Emily was Director of Youth Development at the YMCA in Virginia. Emily is passionate about empowering youth ideas and voices; she has been a mentor to teams of high schoolers -- coaching in both design thinking and creative problem solving to help them hone their social entrepreneurial projects, pitch to stakeholders, and secure investment funding. Emily has presented twice for the Scottish Refugee Council, guest lectured at the University of Glasgow, and piloted a program for young writers and illustrators to challenge xenophobia with refugees in Scotland. 

Emily may or may not be the founder of a secret literacy society. If she were involved in any such secret society, it would be the sort that transforms a downtown street into Diagon Alley for a day, leaves a trail of clues for fellow mischief makers to unravel, and creates magic out of the mundane.

Risa Schwartz

Risa Schwartz is the President of the Board of Directors and CEO of the Children’s Book Project, responsible for strategic planning and oversight of the project. Risa has a B.A. in English from Yale College and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law. She is an attorney licensed in California and a knowledge management consultant in the legal and medical professions, has written and illustrated two (unpublished) children’s books, and, in her spare time, is a children’s storyteller.

Maureen McCarthy

Maureen McCarthy recently retired from her job as a mental health therapist at a school based health center in San Francisco for thirty years.  After retiring, she joined the Board of Directors for the Children’s Book Project.  Prior to the shelter-in-place order, she spent one day a week at the Book Site sorting and restocking the bookshelves as well as helping teachers and community workers with their book selections. Working in a school setting emphasized the need for a solid foundation in reading and writing, so she says that being able to give books out for free to her community is the best experience ever!

The Children’s Book Project

The Children's Book Project gives away free books for children who need them. All those who serve children and need books -- teachers, public-health workers, childcare providers, homeless shelter staff, etc. from all over the Bay Area -- are welcome to come select an unlimited number of free books from the Children’s Book Project in San Francisco. Since it was founded in 1992, the Children’s Book Project has collected and distributed nearly 3 million free children’s books, about 140,000 each year.

Many of the books that the Children’s Book Project distributes are gently-used and collected in bins hosted at book shops and retail stores throughout the city. Volunteers sort the collected volumes into 78 categories and display them on well-organized shelves at the Children’s Book Project for clients to peruse and take for the children they serve-- some bring rolling suitcases to make hauling the stacks of books easier! Some of the books are donated by publishers, authors, and booksellers. Almost all of the books that are in high demand (picture books, early readers, books in Spanish) must be bought new. The Children’s Book Project is thus dependent on donations of funds from individuals as well as institutions.

Since the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, the Children’s Book Project has been operating almost entirely on cash donations. Its sources for books have dried up -- retail stores hosting book bins are closed, individual donors are deferring and organizations, like Girl Scouts who hold spring book drives for us, cannot this year. At the same time, school and daycare closures created a greater urgency for home libraries that are out of reach for low-income children. Studies have shown that children who have fewer than 20 books at home perform at least three years behind in school, compared with children with more volumes.

The Children’s Book Project has been working around the clock to meet this greater need. Even as its inventory is getting depleted, the Children’s Book Project has continued distributing children’s books, retooling its typical self-select model to a staff-delivery model.

Today, amidst a global pandemic, school closures, and a statewide shelter-in-place order, our mission couldn’t be more urgent.

■  The effect of school and daycare closures is disproportionately felt by low-income communities who have fewer books in their homes. Since the San Francisco shelter-in-place order on March 16th, the Children’s Book Project has continued to support children in need:

■  Within days we changed our operations model from client self-selection to staff delivery. As of May 1st, two part-time staff sorted and delivered 12,000 free books to 43 Bay Area sites serving our most vulnerable children.

■  We delivered books to meal distribution centers and emergency childcare facilities around San Francisco for safe distribution to children.

■  We’re delivering books to public housing sites, public health clinics, school laptop distribution sites, homeless shelters, and community organizations serving children and families.

■  We partnered with the San Francisco School District and delivered thousands of books for  distance-learning packets for pre-K to 2nd grade learners.

Donation / Volunteer

The Children’s Book Project gives free books to children who need them for equity in literacy, learning, and life. Your financial support helps us put books in the hands of children who need them. Schools are closed and for many of the most vulnerable students, so is access to books and The Children’s Book Project has launched a Covid 19 Rapid Response Go Fund Me Campaign to get free books to children. There are other ways to contribute to the Children’s Book Project.

You can also donate books and volunteer a few hours a week to help count and sort donated children’s books at The Children’s Book Project book site. They always looking for help to organize a children’s book drive, and to find Bay Area businesses to host new Book Bag collection stands, or help with fundraising efforts. Please read some testimonials from our readers. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram

Videos

To find out more about the Children’s Book Project providing free books check out these videos:

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