Open Books North Lawndale is
Come check out our new space at 3812 W. 16th Street
A programming space with a pop up free bookstore.
Buy Books to Build Home Libraries for Under-Resourced Chicago Children
While Chicago Public Schools is almost 90% children of color, less than 15% of kids books published in the past 20 years contain multicultural characters or story lines. Books that "mirror" a child's experience is a key factor in developing a love of reading. To that end, we have created the Gift of Books campaign that allows us to purchase new books to give away that overcome this disparity.
All proceeds benefit our Book Access program to get even more books into kids’ hands.
Literacy For The West Side
In 2021, Open Books launched North Lawndale Reads (NL Reads), a multi-year, multi-strategy campaign designed to amplify in North Lawndale the importance of literacy and give the community’s families, parents, and children the resources critical for early reading, from pre-natal experiences to preschool, from Kindergarten through a child’s first elementary years in school.
Financial Donation
The generosity of donors helps us engage more than 6,000 youth through our literacy programs and give way more than 180,000 books to children and families each year. Together, we can transform lives through reading, writing, and the giving power of used books.
Volunteer
To get started as a volunteer, please join us for a new volunteer information session!
Literacy Programs
Open Books transforms students’ reading and writing skills through experienced educators who deliver innovative instruction, passionate volunteers who serve as positive role models and provide enthusiastic support, safe learning environments for practice, exploration, and social-emotional growth, and access to high-quality books and tailored curricula.
We collect used books.
All books in good condition are welcome, and all donations are tax-deductible. Find out what we take and how to get them to us.
We sell and grant them.
We give books to students in our instructional programs, donate them to educators and students through our book programs, and sell them in our Chicago stores and online.
They fund our programs.
We provide transformational literacy experiences for more than 5,000 K-12 students every year, from reading help through novel-writing.
Volunteers = magic.
Volunteers work with our students, organize our books, staff our events, and make everything happen.
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