Good Reads: The Baton Rouge Book Drop is making reading more accessible to local kids
The Baton Rouge Book Drop began as a simple New Year’s resolution for founder Anne Thomas and her young children in 2021.
“We would see the small, free libraries in parks and neighborhoods around East Baton Rouge, and some were stocked and some weren’t,” she says. “I asked for book donations that I would keep in my car to stock the free libraries, and it grew so quickly.”
Soon, she had more books than she could fit in her car, and she realized that this could be a more meaningful mission. Branching outside of the free libraries, she began exploring places in need of book donations around the Capital City.
To date, Baton Rouge Book Drop has donated over 12,000 children’s books to local organizations like YWCA Early Head Start, CASA and Brave Heart, as well as East Baton Rouge Title I schools, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital and more.
“I think it’s important to promote literacy for all children, because not everyone has equal access to resources,” Thomas says. For her, the goal of the book drops is to give kids the opportunity to create a home library, and by doing so, hopefully foster a passion for reading that stays with them the rest of their lives.
Working with other local nonprofits that focus on assisting children, Thomas has been able to assist in a small way to the success of many local programs. “I don’t want to do what the organizations are already doing,” she says. “I want to help support these organizations, their staff and the children they work with.”
Book drops consist of donations of a minimum of 100 books to organizations like CASA, which keeps the books in juvenile courtrooms so that children have something to do during the long and stressful days, with kids also given the option to bring a book home with them.
Baton Rouge Book Drop accepts new or gently used children’s books for ages birth through eighth grade, along with young adult books that are Accelerated Reader approved. Thomas says that the bulk of the books donated are from individuals, with many donors telling Thomas that they are just happy to find someone to give the books to. The idea of passing the books on to children who will love and cherish them grants peace of mind during spring cleaning or a random house purge.
“That’s part of the love of it for me—letting the book have a second, third or even fourth life rather than letting them rot in an attic,” Thomas says.
Baton Rouge Book Drop books can be found all around town, from a sweet children’s corner in a laundromat to the Dr. Leo S. Butler Community Center. Thomas’s goal is to connect with children across the city, meeting kids where they are and offering them the chance to find joy and adventure in a new story.
“One of the reading buddies at a local EBR school gifted books to their students through our organization,” Thomas explains. “One of the children brought home enough books that her dad built her a bookcase to house her growing collection.”
Now, Thomas has a storage unit to hold the hundreds of books she has on hand until it’s time for a book drop. And this past May, she graduated from LSU with her master’s in social work, something she says she was inspired to do after founding and operating Baton Rouge Book Drop.
“Starting this nonprofit, I was meeting with organizations like YWCA and CASA,” she says. “Many of the people working at these organizations have a degree in social work, and it inspired me to go back to school.”
But while Thomas is the mind and driving force behind Baton Rouge Book Drop, she notes that it takes the whole community, from the individuals donating books to the nonprofits, schools and hospitals which allow the titles to find their new and enthusiastic owners, to see her mission through.
Learn more about the nonprofit and how to donate at batonrougebookdrop.org
