Sharing the Magic of Books

With Trinity’s support, the Brooklyn Book Bodega is building home libraries for kids across New York City, making sure that every child can experience the lifelong benefits — and joy — of reading.

Soon after Sofia* started kindergarten at Brooklyn’s Imagine Me Leadership Charter School, her teacher, Christie Burnham, noticed her struggling to keep pace as classmates learned to read. Sofia and her family were living in a shelter at the time, and books were scarce at home. As a volunteer for the Brooklyn Book Bodega, a nonprofit working to expand book access across the city, Burnham knew how profoundly a home filled with books could shape a child’s future. So she began with a simple question: What do you love?

When Sofia lit up at the mention of unicorns, princesses, and anything sparkly, Burnham turned to the Brooklyn Book Bodega’s vast collection of free books. It provided a stack tailored just for Sofia: How to Catch a Unicorn, the Pinkalicious and Kittycorn series, and write-and-wipe books to help her practice forming letters. 

After Sofia’s new books arrived, Burnham watched something shift in the kindergartener. Sofia’s interest sharpened, and she began recognizing more sight words. By the end of the year, Sofia was hooked. One Kittycorn book became a constant companion, tucked into her backpack and carried from home to school. Burnham can still picture Sofia perched on a bench at dismissal, proudly sharing her book with friends while waiting for the bus.

“She told me she didn’t have many things of her own, so it meant a lot,” Burnham remembers. “And I was really happy to see her progress.”

Burnham’s bounty of books is a direct result of the Brooklyn Book Bodega’s mission to increase the number of 100-plus book homes in New York City. Since its founding in 2018, the nonprofit has worked with over 10,000 volunteers to distribute 850,000 books to more than 290,000 New Yorkers like Sofia through book parties, family literacy workshops, and community partnerships. Educators regularly request curated selections of books for their classrooms through the organization’s website. Staff and volunteers set up tables full of free books for kids to browse at schools, farmers markets, hospitals, neighborhood block parties, afterschool sports programs — anywhere children might be.

When children can freely access books, they build critical literacy skills that help them succeed in the classroom and beyond, says cofounder Rebecca Cohen. “Kids who grow up in homes with more books have better life outcomes, better earning power once they’re out of school, and better physical and mental health,” Cohen says. “If we can encourage a lifelong love of reading, kids are able to open doors of opportunity for themselves.”

Academic success, and literacy in particular, is a central pillar of an ambitious five-year plan by Trinity’s Racial Justice initiative to improve educational outcomes for youth of color in the city. In January 2026, Trinity awarded the Brooklyn Book Bodega a $125,000 general operating grant, giving the organization the flexibility to hire additional staff, deepen its outreach to children in temporary housing, and expand programming at the Book Hub, the nonprofit's home base in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Systemic disparities have long left students of color, particularly Black and Brown students, without the support they need to thrive, says Tasha Tucker, managing director of Racial Justice. High-impact tutoring and curriculum development remain essential pathways to closing achievement gaps, and several Racial Justice grantees are advancing that work. Tucker says that the Brooklyn Book Bodega’s focus on cultivating a love of reading is equally vital.

“Kids with privilege often grow up surrounded by books, but children living in poverty rarely have that same opportunity,” Tucker says. “To read what you love, to have books of your own that you can treasure and return to again and again — that’s how kids begin to see reading as something that belongs to them. We’re proud to support the Brooklyn Book Bodega as it works to make sure that every child, regardless of background, can access the joy of reading and all the benefits that accompany it.” 

For New York City’s students, the stakes are high. Research shows that children who cannot read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. According to data from this year’s state exams, reading proficiency has declined citywide, with a 14 percentage point drop among third graders. Racial disparities remain stark, with Black and Latino students significantly less proficient than their white and Asian peers.

Parts of the city — including neighborhoods in the Bronx and Queens — are considered “book deserts,” areas with very few books for sale or lending. More than 75 percent of New York City's public school students are economically disadvantaged, and for many families, a new children’s hardcover — averaging $22, according to the Brooklyn Book Bodega — is simply out of reach. At school, it’s becoming rarer for teachers to assign teens full books to read. Even with a robust public library system, kids’ access to books is limited by how often caregivers can bring them to their local branch.

Cohen and cofounders Seema Aghera and Tamara Jachimowicz, all moms whose children attended the same Brooklyn school, began diving into the data on early literacy in 2018. Cohen, a former teacher, saw firsthand the transformative impact that reading had on her students’ academic and personal growth. Her conversations with Aghera, the school’s PTA president and Jachimowicz, a psychologist, helped surface a powerful realization: a home library could change the trajectory of a child’s life. 

Kids who grow up in homes with more books receive, on average, three more years of schooling than their bookless peers, regardless of their parents’ education, occupation, and economic status. The positive effects of book ownership are strongest for kids in the most disadvantaged homes, which means every additional book has an outsize impact on families that possess only a few, according to Cohen.

The team’s first book giveaway, in 2018, drew about 35 people. Eight years later, the initiative has grown exponentially. Between January and June of this year, the nonprofit distributed 95,899 books to 28,953 readers, partnering with 294 organizations and 1,983 volunteers.

With Trinity’s support, the Brooklyn Book Bodega has deepened its programming. Read Where You Are, a collaboration with New York City Public Schools, has expanded literacy opportunities for children navigating housing insecurity. Now in its second year, the program grew from six shelter sites to 13 this year. The team organized 35 Read Where You Are events, refreshing shelters’ on-site libraries and hosting book parties for kids to browse and select books. The nonprofit was also able to experiment with a new format for I Love My Bodega, a workshop that helps caregivers practice literacy habits with their children. 

“Both Read Where You Are and I Love My Bodega embody the idea that literacy support should meet families where they are,” says Aghera. “Whether that means bringing books and programming directly to families or helping parents and caregivers build literacy habits with their youngest children, these programs allow us to deepen the way we support families beyond providing books. Flexible support from partners like Trinity gives us the ability to invest in programs like these as they grow and respond to what we’re seeing in our communities.”  

As they look toward the future, Aghera says the team is thinking about how to develop more educational resources for families and enhance volunteer programming.  

At Imagine Me Leadership Charter School, Brooklyn Book Bodega volunteer Burnham has distributed so many books — she estimates it’s over 600 — that students have taken to calling her “The Book Lady.” It’s a nickname she embraces and works hard to keep. She’s filled every classroom in the building with books. She hands out gift bags full of books for students to read over the holidays and sets up book giveaways during parent-teacher nights. And she still loves it when students come to her with specific requests for books to take home.

It matters, Burnham says, when kids get to keep the books they love.

“When they get to pick and choose their own book, they get so excited. They want to write their names in it immediately. They want to show it to their parents and talk about it with friends at lunch,” she says. “And they tell me, very proudly, ‘This is my book.’” 

*Name has been changed to protect the student’s privacy.

Visit the Brooklyn Book Bodega’s website to learn how to volunteer or request books for your community.