Holiday Book Drive

The Literacy Council of Frederick County is again partnering with Curious Iguana and Barnes & Noble Booksellers for our Annual Holiday Book Drive for the benefit of Blessings in a Backpack (BIAB) to provide new books for pre K – 6th grade children.

Blessings in a Backpack, Frederick, provides weekend backpacks of supplemental nutrition to approximately 2,500+ children in 17 Frederick County schools. Many of the children depend on school meals as their primary source of nutrition Monday–Friday but are at risk of going hungry from lunch in school on Friday until breakfast on Monday morning. Donated books will be included in these backpacks before the winter break. While the Literacy Council serves adult literacy needs, providing appealing, age-appropriate books to children fosters literacy at a young age and helps to break the cycle of illiteracy in families.

BIAB, along with Frederick County Public School teachers, has prepared a recommended book list from which to make your selections. Please select a book from this list to help ensure that BIAB will have an equitable selection of grade level appropriate books for all the children in the program.  This list is also available at Barnes and Noble and Curious Iguana.

To participate in the Holiday Book Drive, you may purchase and donate books at either Curious Iguana in downtown Frederick (12 N. Market St.) or Barnes & Noble Booksellers at FSK Mall (5500 Buckeystown Pike).  Or you may simply purchase a book and drop it off at the Literacy Council’s office at 110 E. Patrick St.  The drive for BIAB will run from November 12 through noon on December 17.

As of December 14, we are short about 325 books for 3 grade levels – Pre-K, 4th and 5th (see edited book list), and have extended the drive until December 17. Please help us meet the goal so that each child will have a new book!  All books must be dropped off at the Literacy Council office by noon on Monday the 17th, or in the drop off box at either Curious Iguana or Barnes and Noble at FSK mall by the end of the day on Sunday the 16th.  If you are unable to go purchase a book but would like to help, you may make a monetary donation through our website designating the donation for the Book Drive in the Purpose of Donation section, and we will purchase the book/s on your behalf.

You can still participate from December 17 through January 1 through Barnes and Noble or until December 24 by bringing books directly to the Literacy Council office.  Book selections after December 12 can be for children of any age. Donors often like to share a childhood favorite or just encourage the habit of reading in a child. We request no religious holiday themed books so that we are not limited in distributing them. The Literacy Council will donate books given after December 12 to other local organizations serving children or use them to support the Council’s parent literacy program.

The Holiday Book Drive, now in its 12^th year, has provided books for several local agencies including Head Start, the YMCA’s Early Learning Center, Toys for Tots, Advocates for Homeless Families, and Children of Incarcerated Parents (COIP) as well as Blessings in a Backpack.