Award-Winning Children’s Author Visits Hope Gardens
NYCHA Residents Received 35,000 Free Books
April 25 was a day off for New York City public school children during spring break, but it wasn’t a day off from learning about the joys of reading for children who attended a special event at the Hope Gardens Community Center in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Award-winning author Ibi Zoboi visited the students to talk about reading and writing books as part of the National Book Foundation’s Book Rich Environments (BRE) program in partnership with NYCHA.
BRE helps children living in public housing develop a lifelong joy of reading. It connects families living in public housing with reading-related resources, working to improve opportunities and outcomes. The program is led by the National Book Foundation in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Education, the Urban Libraries Council, and the National Center for Families Learning.
As part of BRE, the National Book Foundation hosts author visits to help young people connect with authors and deepen their love of reading. Ms. Zoboi is the author of seven books for children, middle graders, and young adults. She received several Coretta Scott King Honor Awards and was a finalist for the National Book Award. She has been a writer-in-residence and a teaching artist for NYC public schools and has worked with arts organizations such as Teachers & Writers Collaborative and Community Word Project.
Ms. Zoboi’s ease with children was evident as she entertained the audience at the community center. She told the children, who ranged in age from 5 to 12, about how she came to the United States from Haiti with her mother at a very young age and settled in Bushwick.
“I’m so happy to be here in Bushwick because when I was your age, I lived just a few blocks away,” Ms. Zoboi said. She pointed to the screen with images of her book covers and said, “I wrote all of these books, and I came from this place – so imagine all the places you will go from here. You can be anything you want to be no matter where you live and no matter where you come from.”
Ms. Zoboi gave a presentation with a countdown on the top 10 reasons she became a writer. Each time a number popped up on the screen, she encouraged the audience to yell out the number with her. The first reason she shared was her huge imagination. “How many of you have a huge imagination?” she asked. “Good! That is one of the most important things that you have. Always thinking of new ideas. Always drawing. Always telling stories.”
She asked the children to describe what it would feel like to fly and to imagine what an iPhone 50, aliens, or monsters look like. “I make a living off of my imagination. Isn’t that wild?” she said. Other reasons she shared include not seeing herself in the books she read in high school, her belief in social justice, and being inspired by the culture of New York City.
After her talk, children waited in line to receive their free signed copies of her books. Three of her books were distributed: The People Remember, a picture book named a Coretta Scott King Book Award Honor; My Life as an Ice-Cream Sandwich, a middle grade novel; and Nigeria Jones, a young adult novel that was awarded a 2024 Coretta Scott King Award.
BRE has distributed over 2 million new, free books to children and families in public housing since it was launched in 2017. This year, BRE partnered with 60 HUD-assisted communities across the country as local partners; NYCHA, as the largest public housing authority in North America, received the most books (35,000 this year). BRE will gift a total of 300,000 books to children across the country this year.
The books are provided thanks to donations from Bloomsbury Publishing, Candlewick Press, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Sourcebooks, and W.W. Norton & Company.
Reading allows our children to use their imaginations and exposes them to the world beyond their own community,” said Audrey Washington, Director of NYCHA’s Office of Public-Private Partnerships. “It was inspiring to see how excited the children were to engage with Ms. Zoboi and to hear about her journey to become an author. We are thankful to BRE for partnering with us on this community engagement event and the book donation project that positively impacts so many NYCHA youth.”
Resident association leaders interested in picking up books for the young people at their developments can visit NYCHA developments that will serve as a central hub for book distribution: in the Bronx at Gun Hill Houses, in Manhattan at Polo Grounds Towers, and in Queens at Beach 41st Street Houses. In Brooklyn, books will be distributed to NYCHA residents via the Brooklyn Public Library Bookmobile.
Resident leaders: For more information about how to get connected to a hub servicing free books, contact Jade Holden at partnerships@nycha.nyc.gov.