Bess the Book Bus Delivered the Joy of Reading

Bess the Book Bus helped kids build home libraries and gave away hundreds of books traveling from Tampa, FL to Detroit, MI

Bess the Book Bus returned to Michigan this month and visited Harms Elementary School in SW Detroit on May 15th with partnership support from Detroit Financial Credit Union and Cornerstone Academy. On May 20th, with help from CITGO and Miss Michigan- Jenae Lodewyk, Bess the Book Bus delivered approximately 678 books.

Bess the Book Bus, a nonprofit agency based out of Tampa, Florida, has a team that travels nationwide to imbue literacy, implements programs that are nurturing, social book fair experiences that help instill a love of reading, one child, one caregiver, and one educator at a time. These events manifest the organization’s mission and fulfill the promise of book access, choice and ownership for young readers, bridging economic barriers. They endeavor to spark the joy of reading for pleasure and ignite a lifetime of learning. Every day the team works toward a world wherein children, educators, and families have equitable access to books that they can choose for their home and classroom libraries. To date, Bess the Book Bus has delivered over one million books!

“Approximately 570 students and educators visited the book fairs in Detroit and were able to take home new books.” Founder and Executive Director, Jennifer E. Frances stated, “We had a great trip to Detroit and hope to make it an annual visit going forward! It’s been since 2018, and we were so happy to return to this lovely community!”

Bess the Book Bus began its annual expedition across the United States in April of this year to deliver books to elementary and middle school students throughout the nation. Bess the Book Bus is a nationwide mobile literacy initiative that aims to bring the joy of reading and book ownership to students, educators and families in economically vulnerable neighborhoods. The bus travels nationwide to provide free books to pre-K and K-12 students. Bess the Book Bus was founded in 2002 by Jennifer E. Frances, and named after her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth “Nana Bess” O’Keefe. Nana Bess instilled the joy of reading in Frances and her cousin. And as someone from a family of “story lovers and storytellers,” she decided she wanted to share that passion with students. Over the past 23 years, the bus has made stops in each of the 48 contiguous states.

This annual nationwide tour gives the organization the ability to really foster literacy and encourage reading from an early age. Jennifer stated, “Access and choice are the vital components of nurturing a love of reading in children. To become lifelong readers, kids need access to a variety of books both at home and in the classroom. This way they not only have consistent access to reading materials, they are able to engage with literature that they are interested in, and in turn, this fosters a local culture of reading that inspires widespread enthusiasm for literacy. When you get that choice, it creates an ownership mentality, and that translates into having an identity as a reader,” she explained. “I want them to know it’s not just about a test score - I want them to really feel the joy of reading and getting lost in a beautiful story.”

Meanwhile, back in Tampa, Florida, the third-grade class at St. Mary’s Episcopal Day School held their 2nd annual fundraiser to benefit Bess the Book Bus. Each student was encouraged to find a unique way to earn money to donate to a local charity. This is the second year St. Mary’s students have chosen Bess the Book Bus as the beneficiary. The kids raised money for 30 days. They could not ask for money from their parents. Instead, they were tasked with developing and designing unique ways to earn money.

They also followed the adventures on the tour. Jennifer stated, “We have been sending them postcards from each place we visit or drive through. It’s been a wonderful connection!”

This year the students raised a remarkable amount of funding. $4,531.50! They accomplished this with a variety of entrepreneurial projects to include:

• Lemonade stands

• Homemade cookie sales

• They worked at Panera cleaning

• Car washes

• Chores for their families and neighbors

• Lawn care

• Pet care, and…

• A bike-a-thon.

  
  

If you want to join in and contribute to Bess the Book Bus’ extraordinary mission of, “Delivering the magic of reading to children and communities,” you can make a financial contribution at: https://bessthebookbus.org/donate.