We started Books for Change during lockdown 2020 mainly because we had time to pause and reflect on the world around us, on the world our children are living in.
Books for Change was born from a love of diverse children’s literature and one of the co-founders lived experience of racism – we had known for a long time that schools desperately needed to diversify their bookshelves. We also knew from working in schools in a community engagement capacity, there are little or no funds to purchase the latest diverse books… so we decided to set up a crowdfunder and buy them ourselves! You can also do that too – see our tool kit for help and guidance.
How?
We chose our home town of Folkestone and all nineteen primary schools in it and we set to work using social media as our platform to spread our message of hope and positivity.
Books
We have raised £3,507 to buy our schools new diverse books that include black protagonists, children and families of colour, families with two mums or two dads, books that help to explain gender identity, what LGBTQI means, people who have disabilities and on black history, books about mighty Iranian girls and boys who dare to be different – we can’t wait to share these with you. Please follow us on our socials to keep up to date with our latest movements.
Campaigns
Out of us starting up came other towns and cities who contacted us asking if they could follow suit, we of course said yes and offered help and support to get going – we now have six groups running with three more due to start any day…we would love to have you on board too!
We hope that you find our website helpful and supportive.
Wendy and Em