In Search of Free Books

National Books for Ownership Programs

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, developed in 1995 for her hometown of Sevier County, Tennessee, has been replicated in communities across the United States to bring books into the homes of preschool children. Through the program, all children in a participating community are enrolled at birth or when they move into the community. Each month, from the day the child is born until their 5th birthday, a selected book arrives at the mailbox. The Dollywood Foundation has developed the delivery system, negotiated price, selected the publisher and the individual titles, and created registration and promotional materials. Local champions in the community—businesses, school districts, civic organizations, individuals, or local government—finance the cost of the books and the mailing, register the children and promote the program.

First Book

First Book is a national nonprofit that has provided more than 50 million new books to children in need. In neighborhoods across the country, First Book unites leaders from all sectors of the community to identify and support community-based literacy programs reaching children living at or below the poverty line and provide them with grants of free books and educational materials. The First Book National Book Bank, a subsidiary of First Book, provides new books to children from low-income families using generous donations from children’s book publishers. The First Book National Book Bank distributes large quantities of publisher-donated brand-new books to programs serving children from low-income families. There are 25 to 30 book distributions hosted by the First Book National Book Bank annually at a variety of sites across the United States. The books are free to programs that are able to pick them up or just $0.25 per book to have them shipped.

Heart of America Foundation

The Heart of America Foundation's mission is to teach the values at the heart of America and to help people, particularly children, learn that they help themselves when they help others. Uniquely combining character education, literacy, and service learning, Heart of America's programs include Books From The Heart, a literacy program which engages students, corporations, and other organizations in gathering books that are not being used, solicits publishers for surplus books, and then gets these books into the hands children. Heart of America’s priority is to provide books for elementary schools with 50% or more of their students enrolled in the free/reduced meal program. Interested schools can register to become a Books From The Heart Book Recipient School.

Library of Congress Surplus Books Program

The Library of Congress has surplus books available to educational institutions and non-profit tax-exempt organizations. As most of the books have been turned over to the Library of Congress by other Federal agencies, the collection usually contains only a small percentage of publications at the primary and secondary school levels. There is continuous turnover in the supply of surplus books which can only be received in person by an authorized representative of an eligible organization. The value of the books available at any one time may not justify the expense of sending a representative to Washington solely to select books from this collection, but may be worth the trip in conjunction with a visit to the nation’s capital.

Lisa Libraries

The Lisa Libraries provides new children’s books to help fill bookshelves for small, grass-roots organizations that work with low-income children in underserved communities and provide books to children who may never have had books to call their own. Some of the libraries established have been at day-care centers, prison visiting areas for children of incarcerated parents, and after-school programs. Organizations interested in receiving books for their children should write to the Lisa Libraries.

The Literacy Empowerment Foundation

The Literacy Empowerment Foundation (LEF) is dedicated to assisting educational programs by providing inexpensive children’s books. The Reading Resource Project is an ongoing LEF program that distributes free books in sets of 100 books to literacy programs. Recipients pay shipping, handling, and administrative costs ($65 per set of 100 books). Reading levels are available for preK through second grade and are available in a limited quantity on a first come, first served basis.

Reach Out and Read (ROR)

Reach Out and Read (ROR) programs make early literacy a standard part of pediatric primary care for low-income families. At every well-child check-up for children from six months to five years of age, doctors and nurses encourage parents to read aloud to their young children, offer age-appropriate tips and encouragement, and provide a new, developmentally appropriate children's book to keep. Each new ROR program receives a start-up award to cover the cost of books for up to the first six months of the program. Clinics need to raise funds to pay for the remaining books needed for the first year, after which each eligible ROR program receives funding for book purchases-usually 25% or more of their annual book costs.

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF)

RIF, the nation’s oldest and largest children’s literacy organization, is most well known for its flagship service, Books for Ownership (formerly know as the National Book Program). Through this program, children choose and keep several free paperback books each year and participate in reading motivation activities. RIF serves children and families in every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories in programs that operate in schools, libraries, community centers, child care centers, Head Start and Even Start centers, hospitals, migrant worker camps, homeless shelters, and detention centers. To meet eligibility requirements for the federal funds that pay for 75% of book costs, at least 80% of children must be considered "at risk," as defined by the National Literacy Act of 1991 and participate in the Federal Free and Reduced Meal program.

Local Sources

Book Drives

Request a local church or service group to sponsor a book drive to collect gently used children's books for your organization. These national groups with local chapters have made service to children’s literacy a priority:

• Kiwanis International
• Rotary International
• General Federation of Women’s Clubs
• Girl Scouts
• Zonta International

Local chapters of these professional membership organizations may also be supportive:

• American Association of University Women
• Executive Women International
• International Reading Association

Local Stores and Libraries

Contact your local public libraries, bookstores, toy stores, and other businesses. They may be willing to donate or sell at a discount older or overstocked books that they carry. Better yet, create an ongoing partnership so they will regularly set aside books for your group.

Wish Lists

Whenever you send out a newsletter or e-mail, include a Wish List of the books you'd like donated. This makes an especially effective appeal during the holidays. Choose the books for your wish list by checking with a children's librarian, teacher, or the recommended books on Reading Rockets. Or go "high tech" by using the Wish List feature on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.

Your Public Television Station

Each month, participating public television stations distribute free books to their local partner organizations, who then make them available to children who otherwise would not have books of their own.

Online Options

Many sites on the Internet offer free children's books by unknown authors and of uncertain quality. The following sites, however, have some good online choices for kids. Note that the experience of reading a book online is very different from holding and reading a printed book.

E-Books

International Children's Digital Library (ICDL)

The non-profit ICDL Foundation’s library has evolved into the world's largest digital collection of children's books.  Currently its digital library comprises over 1,500 books in 37 different languages that have been digitized and archived from its library collection of 5,000 books. The ICDL Foundation is partnering with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) to provide digital versions of its children’s books and reader software for the millions of free laptops OLPC will ship worldwide.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books and offers all the classics on MP3. The goal of Project Gutenberg is to provide as many eBooks in as many formats as possible for the entire world to read in as many languages as possible. There are more than 20,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog.

TumbleBookLibrary

TumbleBookLibrary is an online collection of children's favorite story books, such as "The Paper Bag Princess," "Diary of a Worm," “How I Became a Pirate,” "Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10," "One Duck Stuck," and "Tops and BottomsmbleBooks, that have added animation, sound, music and narration. The result is an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you. The TumbleBookLibrary is a subscription service, but offers a free one-month trial for librarians, media specialists, teachers and school administrators that provides unlimited access for everyone in your school or library to the complete TumbleBookLibrary.

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