Donating new books
To schools…
Our recent research with schools has found that school libraries have been decimated by the pandemic and there is an urgent need across the country for high quality, up-to-date reading for pleasure books in schools.
One school librarian told us: “students are being given old, outdated, and pretty dull books. I could cry sometimes handing over a book that I wouldn’t usually give shelf space to”
Nearly 75% of schools responded ‘yes’ or ‘partly’ when asked whether they had to divert money from library budgets during the pandemic.
81% of schools surveyed by Read for Good do not have a separate reading for pleasure budget.
Donating books to Read for Good allows us to help the nation’s school libraries get back on their feet. This matters more than ever because children are more likely to develop a lasting love of reading when presented with interesting books to choose from, and reading can boost both emotional wellbeing and academic attainment. If you have overstocks or spares of new titles, we can find a teacher or librarian who will be over the moon to receive them! Please email cherry@readforgood.org.
To hospitals…
Pristine, brand-new books are a precious lifeline for children in hospital. From the latest titles and award winners, to familiar favourites and treasured classics, picture books to young adult, dyslexia-friendly, braille or large print, and books in other languages, we welcome them all! If you are interested in donating books to help our work, we just ask that they haven’t been handled, ideally they won’t have been unpacked at all. A variety of different titles is great! More than 30 of one title is difficult to distribute but we’ll try to take them off your hands if we can. Please email cherry@readforgood.org.
Although we are not able to provide specific quotes, feedback or photos following donations of books, we can guarantee that they will be very gratefully received; the gift of a brand new book to a child in need cannot be underestimated!
Because of infection control, the books we supply to hospitals must be new and so we are not able to accept second-hand or nearly new books. If you have second hand books to donate, we recommend donating them to BetterWorldBooks who work to get books to those who need them the most. Your local charity shop will also be pleased to take second hand books.
Whilst we are always interested in taking book donations, as a small team we simply don’t have the resources available to assess every single title for suitability, therefore we seek books published by an established UK publishing house and distributed through recognised high street booksellers and/or online retailers.