Our Story

COLUMBUS KIDS’ BOOK BANK

Since 2023, The Columbus Kids’ Book Bank (CKBB) has been providing free books to kids who need them through monthly book giveaways, online book requests, and community events. The CKBB accepts new and gently used K-6 books, sorts them, and distributes them to those who need them the most. 

OUR WHY

• In a study of nearly 100,000 U.S. school children, access to printed materials was the key variable affecting reading acquisition.
• A child in a bookless home has a 30% probability of completing 9th grade. A child with 100 books in their home has a 90% chance!
• In middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children. Neuman, Susan B. and David K. Dickinson, ed. Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 2. New York, NY: 2006, p. 31
• The only behavior measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the number of books in the home. The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, 1998
• The most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children is to increase their access to print. Newman, Sanford, et all. “American’s Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy”; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2000.
• Children growing up in homes with at least twenty books get three years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parents’ education, occupation, and class. Evans, M. D., Kelley, J., Sikora, J., & Treiman, D. J. (2010). Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 28(2), 171-197.