Children’s Book Council Teams With Blue Willow to Send Books to Harvey Victims

The Children’s Book Council(CBC), led by Executive Director Carl Lennertz, is partnering with Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop to send CBC publisher members’ book donations to schools and shelters following Hurricane Harvey, which ripped into Southeast Texas on August 26.

Boxes of book donations from publishers wait at the Children's Book Council offices in New York City to be shipped to police and fire departments, shelters, and schools in Houston.

A Category 4 hurricane, Harvey brought days of driving winds and catastrophic flooding that displaced at least 40,000 people and killed more than 80; in response, Lennertz has added the CBC to the list of publishers and book industry groups, such as the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) and the American Booksellers Association, that are using their resources to provide book donations and financial relief to victims.

“After the reports of the scope of Hurricane Harvey and the news that ABA, ALA, and publishers were rushing in to help stores, libraries, and schools with adult and children’s books, it struck me that CBC could fill two roles after the initial need for food, water, and clothing was met: to reach out to shelters with free kids’ books, and to serve as a book donation resource for our small- to medium-sized children’s publisher members,” said Lennertz.

Lennertz said he reached out to Blue Willow, where Cathy Berner answered right away and put him in touch with the nonprofit running a large shelter at the NRG Center, a 706,000-square-foot convention center in Houston where thousands of displaced Houstonians are currently being housed. As of this week, more than 2,000 children’s and teen books have made it to the center, sent from both the CBC offices and directly from publishers around the country.

“The other thing we put in motion was a request from all publishers for books to come to the CBC offices, where we’d re-sort and re-ship to the police and fire departments we’d called, knowing they’d be the ones most able to get books to families in other shelters and those in need over a longer time period,” added Lennertz. “Three thousand books have gone out to a dozen departments around Texas, from coloring books to YA.”

The CBC has also begun to extend its efforts to Florida, where thousands were affected by Irma, a Category 4 hurricane that swept through the Caribbean, the Florida Keys, and up the southeastern coast in early September.

More children's books waiting at the CBC offices to be shipped

“We’ve been contacted by several elementary schools that desperately need books for kids, and those are on their way now, as some schools have only just reopened,” Lennertz told Bookselling This Week. “We are now reaching out to Florida police and fire departments. But the first contact with Blue Willow got it all going for us.”

Blue Willow was closed for a few days following the storm to deal with a lack of electricity but not much physical damage; as a result, they were able to start helping others right away. According to owner Valerie Koehler, Lennertz reached out to the store early on with support while she was still without power both at her home and at the shop; Berner took on all communication.

“Carl e-mailed us August 31, while we were still coping with flooding worries, to ask about getting books into shelters,” Berner said. “We connected Carl with the fine folks at Baker Ripley, who designed the NRG Center, the central shelter being run by Harris County.”

“From that point on, Carl asked for recommendations of communities to reach out to in order to provide books from publishers,” said Berner. “We’ve connected Carl with schools and shelters along the Gulf Coast of Texas and are delighted to continue to partner with him and CBC to provide books to schools and families that have lost so much.”

Blue Willow had another chance to make a difference at schools and shelters when an Arizona woman reached out to Koehler and helped establish the store’s new Hurricane Harvey Relief Gift Card Program through a personal donation. The program lets customers buy a store gift card that pays for staff to choose and send new books to children in shelters and to schools that have lost their library collections.

“Recovery from Hurricane Harvey is a marathon, not a sprint, for the entire Gulf Coast region,” Berner told BTW. “Every day, we’re learning about more schools, libraries, and neighborhoods that have suffered damage and loss of books. We’re in it for the long haul and are so glad to know that our partners at CBC, led by Carl, are as well.”