Metro Detroit nonprofit sharing free books to children, teachers at book bank
A Metro Detroit nonprofit organization is expanding its services.
is on a mission to end book deserts and improve literacy across the area. A few weeks ago, the organization opened a book bank.
Nestled on the corner of Fischer Street and Mack Avenue on the east side of Detroit is Birdie's Book Nest.
"I just wanted to make sure that if I was setting up a brick-and-mortar, if I was setting up a book bank, that it was here in the community that has supported me," Alyce Hartman, Birdie's Bookmobile's founder & executive director, said.
Unlike a bookstore, the literature at the book bank is free. There's a large variety, including picture books in different languages, chapter books and graphic novels.
"I think that having a love of reading, and being able to be transported into other worlds and to use your imagination and creativity in those ways, that's what was so important to me," Hartman said.
By , kids get three free books a month, and teachers get 12.
"You have to read in order to be anything you want to be," Chanelle Draper, first-grade teacher at Detroit Prep, said. "I've been here every Saturday since she started it, and I absolutely loved it."
Every Saturday at 10 a.m. is storytime.
This weekend, kids are learning about Miss Betti, a former lunch lady who improved the quality of food at schools in Detroit.
Everyone who attends the Detroit Bookfest this year can help the nest continue to grow.
"Birdie's will be at Bookfest with a variety of yellow bins stationed all over the market," Ryan Place, founder of Detroit Bookfest, said. "People who want to donate new or gently used kids books can put them in the bins, and birdies will collect them and take them all over the city to kids who need them."
With books for all ages from infants to teens, plus a bookcase for adults, Birdie's Book Nest is a haven for beginners and avid readers alike.
"I enjoyed reading as a child, and I wanted children to have that same experience," Hartman said.
The hope is to open a second location on the west side of Detroit in the future.
Detroit Bookfest is Sunday, July 20, at Eastern Market.
