Reading as soul-care for kids

As a children’s book author and former school librarian, Abby Cooper founded A Book of My Own (ABOMO) in 2023 to help more Minnesota children enjoy reading for pleasure and grow their own personal collections of books. The new non-profit took off fast. Since 2023, it has shipped over 13,000 books to families in almost 200 Minnesota cities.

Now that need has increased and become complicated.

Cooper described the situation, especially in the Twin Cities, where there’s “an influx of children spending all their time at home, most of whom are not able to purchase books of their own.” New financial needs and book-delivery complications are occurring alongside a heightened need for reading material to pass the time and continue to maintain and grow reading skills.

Under normal circumstances, families applied for the program through an online form, sharing about each child in their household, including their interests and languages spoken at home. Reviewing each form, the “kid-lit experts” at ABOMO selected four age- and interest-appropriate books for each child. Then the curated books were shipped directly to each family’s home.

To address the current crisis, Cooper needed to grow her team of volunteer children’s book experts. “We brought in more volunteers, did our best to fundraise, and purchased and distributed books in multiple languages as quickly as possible to the best of our ability,” Cooper said.

The volunteer team still hand-curates the titles for each child, based on reading level, age, language preference, and interests. It’s a labor-intensive effort. The general sorting and boxing tasks are fairly straightforward, but the curation process takes in-depth understanding of children’s literature.

Cooper now has a growing team of over 50 volunteers and a much larger network of partnering organizations. “I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support we’ve received,” she said. “Not just locally, but from companies, bookstores, authors, and publishers around the country.”

Cooper and her volunteers also had to troubleshoot delivery of the books. Rather than shipping them, they now provide them to partnering organizations who handle distribution from there. “It’s a book assembly line of sorts, and it works,” she said. “To date, we’ve gotten nearly 3,000 books into the hands of students who need them.”
ABOMO is not the only entity providing this service. “Several of our awesome local bookstores have started running book drives and distributing books to kids at home as well,” Cooper said. That includes Wild Rumpus, serving Minneapolis schools, and Red Balloon in St. Paul. Books also get distributed to children during larger toy-and-activity drives that have popped up at locally-owned businesses around the Twin Cities.

Cooper shared that ABOMO has always received positive feedback in follow-up surveys. That gratitude is more pronounced now. One parent recently shared: “We used to go to the library often. My kids loved it. We stopped going because of everything that’s happening outside, but thanks to you, the books come to us, and they bring us joy. Thank you.”

• To donate financially, please visit: www.bookofmyown.com/donation/ 
• To give books, request books, volunteer, or get involved as a school, learn more about current needs and contact ABOMO through their website: www.bookofmyown.com/contact/.