In the days after Hurricane Harvey moved through the Houston area, Books Between Kids opened its warehouse to hundreds of volunteers and received donations of thousands of children’s books to replenish schools impacted by the storm.

In partnership with HISD, the organization last week delivered more than 4,000 children’s books to Robinson and Mitchell elementary schools, both recently relocated due to extensive damage directly related to floodwaters from the hurricane.

In the coming days, Books Between Kids will continue its support, delivering 15,000 children’s books to relocated campuses across the school district, including Braeburn, Scarborough and Hilliard elementary schools.

“Only Books Between Kids was in a position to step up and provide thousands of books within a few days,” said Cindy Puryear, Director of Literacy and Library Services for Elementary Curriculum and Development for HISD. “And to top it off, as soon as the shipments of (replacement) books begin to arrive, precious children, many who have lost everything – at school and at home – will have books to take home for their own personal libraries. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Books Between Kids has been supported by Blue Willow Book Shop and Candlewick Press. Together, they are providing enough children’s books to create a library for every classroom in each of the relocated campuses. As the classrooms and homes in the affected communities are restored, the books will be sent home with the students to rebuild the children’s home libraries damaged in the flooding.

Books Between Kids was founded in 2012 to address dire statistics about the lack of children’s books in low-income communities and the direct correlation to lowered reading abilities. It is committed to providing access to books for Houston children in economically distressed areas. In May of 2017, Books Between Kids distributed over 300,000 books to 42,000 children in low-income communities throughout Houston.