The East Bay Children’s Book Project is a thriving free resource for professionals working with youth in the East Bay. Last year, it gave away 112,000 free books. Since its inception in 2005, the organization has given away nearly half a million.

It’s open every Tuesday and Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m., but is taking a summer break. It will close Tuesday, June 22, and reopen Tuesday,  Aug. 17. The good news is teachers and other groups still have time to pick up books for summer reading.

“We want to encourage people to come and get books for the summer,” said Ann Katz, director of the project.

The group’s mission is to provide books to children. It gives teachers the chance to stock their classrooms with books despite crippling education budget cuts. The need is constant; teachers like to give books to students to take home to start their own libraries. All groups that work with children are eligible to receive books.

A recent article in Science Daily reports that, according to a 20-year study, children who have access to books at home attain higher levels of education than those who don’t. According to both Jan Lozito and Annette Wood, Book Project volunteers, most teachers like to have about 100 books on hand. Because some East Bay schools don’t have libraries, teachers need to find books themselves. Wood said new teachers often have to start from scratch to fill their classrooms' bookshelves. 

The East Bay Children’s Book Project was founded by Ann Katz and Fern Lehner in 2005. Katz, a former kindergarten teacher, said they thought they’d run the Book Project from her home, but donations quickly exceeded expectations and they happily searched for a bigger space. They operated from the Grand Lake Neighborhood Center for four years, supported by the city of Oakland, until last year when budget cuts made that impossible. The neighborhood center closed and forced the group to find another home. It now shares space with Lotus Bloom Child & Family Resource Center at 2008 Park Blvd. in Oakland.

The group relies 100 percent on donations, community involvement and about 30 volunteers. Each week, volunteers pick up donated books from Half Priced Books in Berkeley and Fremont and bring them in to be unpacked, sorted, counted and shelved. Other regular donors include Publishers Group West and Developmental Studies Center. 

Anyone can drop off new or used books at bins located at many locations throughout the East Bay. The group offers anyone who wants to sponsor a book drive simple instructions on its website and extra help if necessary.

Although teachers, more than any other group, pick up books, pediatricians, social workers and youth agencies also are regular customers. Board and picture books for the very young are in constant demand as are multiculturally-themed books to meet the East Bay’s community needs.

The day of this interview, due to the end of the school year, “business was really slow,” Katz said. Yet, on this  “slow” day at the East Bay Children’s Book Project, 17 cartons of about 1,600 donated books were counted and shelved; about 1,200 books were taken for free. 

Teachers from Anna Yates, Fruitvale, Lafayette and Lincoln elementary schools, Monarch Academy and American Indian Charter middle and high schools, and staff from the Asian Community Mental Health Association were among the customers picking up free books.

Lois Gomez, recreation center director of the F.M. Smith Recreation Center regularly distributes books from the project to kids who come to the neighborhood center. She also helps store cartons of books when weekly donations outnumber people coming for the books.

The project accepts all books except encyclopedias, religious or library books, magazines, textbooks or adult books. Books are shelved and organized for easy browsing and choosing. Categories include picture and board books, coloring books, beginning readers, chapter books, joke books, poetry, sports, biographies,  multicultural themes, dictionaries and atlases. The volunteers know and love their books and are able to help customers find just what they need.

FYI

East Bay Children’s Book Project, 2008 Park Blvd., Oakland, 510-433-0412

Regular hours: 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Closed June 22 to Aug. 16

For information on how your organization can help, click here.

For more donating information, click here.