JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Tenikka’s Books for Kids is back for a sixth year!
This year, the annual book collection drive, also known as #TB4K, runs from Monday, March 27 to Saturday, April 8, 2023.
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Tenikka is asking for book donations and encouraging adults to make time to read with the kids in their life.
We are collecting new and very gently used books for local children from birth to 18 years old. This includes everything from picture books for babies, books for new readers and chapter books for teens.
You can donate books several ways:
- Order books online from the Tenikka’s Books for Kids Amazon Wish List, curated by the Jacksonville Public Library.
- Drop off book donations at all Jacksonville Public Library branches
- Shop Local: Buy books in-store and donate on site at The Bookmark in Neptune Beach or San Marco Books and More in San Marco. San Marco Books and More also has an online option for customers to purchase books by clicking here
- Drop off books at our participating Family Focus partners, click on each one for a list of their locations: First Florida Credit Union, First Coast YMCA and Beaver Toyota and Beaver Chevrolet
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This year, the first week of Tenikka Books for Kids also coincides with “Celebrate Reading Week” in Jacksonville, put on by the READ JAX collaborative which includes the Jacksonville Public Library.
According to a proclamation from the City of Jacksonville, the week-long initiative acknowledges, “the importance of reading to the health and wellbeing of Jacksonville’s children, youth and families.”
Tenikka’s Books for Kids is spearheaded by Action News Jax Anchor Tenikka Hughes, a youth literacy and education advocate who has spent countless hours reading to local children. The book collection drive serves two key purposes:
- One, it encourages children to read, thus preventing the “summer slide” where kids lose two to three months of what they learned in school.
- Two, it provides free books for children to build their own libraries at home.
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All the books collected during Tenikka’s Books for Kids book drive, are given to kids who meet their reading goals during the Jacksonville Public Library’s Summer Reading Program. The books come at no cost to the children or their families.
Since it launched in 2018, Tenikka’s Books for Kids has put nearly 20,000 books in the hands of local children. Thank you in advance for helping us give the gift of reading to local children!
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