Dearest gentle readers:

Hope this finds you well and that your summer is going swimmingly so far! We had a fun-filled June, and we can't wait to tell you about it, so let's dive in...

We were thrilled to provide new book arks for our friends at Tree House Books and the Interfaith Homeless Outreach Council! The former was installed at the Duckrey School's new playground in Philadelphia, and the latter is located at the Serenity House in Haddon Heights. Many thanks to Brein Mortez and Priscilla Rios of the We Live Here Artist Collective for painting the ark for the Serenity House. We appreciate you so much!

We installed Free Book Shelves at Acelero Learning in Camden, and they are being stewarded with great care (thank you Noemi!) If you are interested in having Free Book Shelves at your organization's location, please reach out!

We were excited to host pop-up libraries at the grand re-opening of the newly renovated William G. Rohrer Children's Playground at Cooper River Park and the Hispanic Family Center's Health and Wellness Fair in Camden! Community events are one of our favorite ways to spread the literary love, so don't hesitate to invite us if you're interested in having a pop-up library at your next event.

Last but certainly not least, we had the immense pleasure of partnering with the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts to host three events in association with the NEA Big Read! In celebration of Sandra Cisneros' classic novel The House on Mango Street, we hosted three events featuring discussions of the book led by the brilliant & acclaimed poet Dimitri Reyes.

The first of these events was our last Kids Alley visit of the school year. We celebrated with mangoes, copies of The House on Mango Street (in English and Spanish!), fun activities and a reading from the book by Dimitri. Tom surprised our Marketing and Development Director, Amy, with a birthday cake to share! It was a day to remember.

Next, we partnered with La Ingrata to host an event at their restaurant (if you haven't been, we highly recommend checking it out!) and finally with Mighty Writers! We are so grateful to the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, Kids Alley, La Ingrata, Mighty Writers, and Dimitri Reyes for partnering with us to make these events happen! It was an honor to work with you, and a pleasure to celebrate this great work of literature together.

Many thanks also to our new Patreon subscribers Susanne Rainier and Judi Rogers! We deeply appreciate your support. If you're looking for a way to support the work we do, check out our Patreon and consider subscribing!

Thank you so much for reading, take good care of yourselves, and hope to see you soon!

Lots of love,



The Free Books Project Team