Our Goal
We aspire to get books in the hands of ALL kids to ensure every child has the opportunity to be Book Smart.
Our Story
In order to fully understand and appreciate the process of what we do, first you must learn our history that has gotten us to where we are today. As a child, I loved reading and was always so fascinated by how each book was a different world and story; to me that was incredibly fun. When I got a bit older, my father and I had made a plan to help kids that were less fortunate who needed books, because we believed that books are a gift to the world and that every child should have a book to explore.
My father passed away and we never got a chance to start this book project together, so I decided to start this project in honor of my father and our shared passion for helping others.
In 2014, I started to post in Facebook groups pitching the idea of collecting kids books from the area and giving them to local teachers who needed them for their classrooms. The response from the community was incredible and thus The Book Smart Project (formerly known as The Taleeny Weeny Reading Project) was born. Over the years, we have collected thousands of books from families around the state that no longer have a need for their children’s books, and in turn, we have donated these books to hundreds of teachers teaching all around the state of New Jersey, mostly in low income areas. We have donated to Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington for their pediatric offices, donated to Camp Bernie, and donated to DYFS. We have also partnered with a couple of other organizations with the intentions of spreading the gift of literacy to children. We partnered with Literacy Movement 4 More to get books to those in need in India and overseas. As of recently we have partnered with Empower and Help and are sending books to the Caribbean countries that have been affected by natural disasters and have also helped them translate handmade greeting cards to Arabic to send to the children of Syria that are in hospitals needing some moral uplifting.
We are so proud of all the progress we have made over the years and look forward to doing more and getting more in the hands of children to help them explore and experience the great adventures of reading books.