Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank celebrates 10 years

The Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank will celebrate its 10-year anniversary this week.

In addition to the milestone birthday, the organization is also commemorating the distribution of 6 million books and the one-year anniversary of the Mandel Literacy Hub. All three will be cheers’ed during an Oct. 17 fundraiser called, “Bet on Books: Escape to the Neverland.”

“Peter Pan reminds us that growing up doesn’t mean leaving imagination behind,” said Natalie Friedl, Kids’ Book Bank executive director. “For 10 years, our community has helped put more than six million books into children’s hands. Now we’re inviting everyone to celebrate, while helping us create the next million opportunities for children to discover the magic of reading.”

Tickets for the event are $75.

Literacy levels are a persistent concern in Cleveland. As noted in one of our stories below, “About 61% of U.S. children living at or below the poverty line have no books at home, leading to reading gaps that impact at least 25 million kids.

“Cleveland has its own troubles with low literacy levels. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Cleveland was ranked 24th for fourth and eighth grade reading out of 25 major U.S. cities.”  

To help commemorate the event, The Land is also looking back at its own reporting on the Kids Book Bank.

Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank settles into new west side home by Susan Eyerman

In mid-October 2025, the Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank held a ribbon-cutting that opened a new home on Parkway Road. In February 2025, Kids’ Book Bank purchased the building on West Parkway in Cleveland’s Jefferson-Puritas area. The move expanded the operation from 5,500 square feet, in a building shared with other tenants, to 24,000 square feet, with a building of their own. The new quarters are handicap-accessible, including a restroom facility with a Universal Changing Table.

Cleveland nonprofits collaborate to promote literacy

Reporter Lucy McNees toured the West Parkway facility in early 2026 as part of a larger story on youth literacy. Here’s her observation.

“Mahogani Graves, community outreach lead at KBB, gives me a tour of the facility. Inside the warehouse are the most books I’ve ever seen in one place – all in huge boxes labeled by genre and age. I wonder out loud about organization, and Graves tells me they manage them all through volunteers from the community. Their ADA-compliant building allows them to welcome volunteers of all ages and abilities, including time slots for young people (ages 8-12) to come with their parents.”

“When people think of a need, they automatically think of food, water and housing,” says Volunteer Services Coordinator Devin McNulty-DeMarco. “They don’t think of the education and literacy side, which is understandable. But people don’t realize the impact of literacy.” By encouraging young literacy through free books and programs, nonprofits like KBB are working to promote a cycle of literacy that begins in the home.”

Little Free Libraries build bridges with books for Cleveland neighborhoods 

If you’ve seen Little Free Libraries dotted along your neighborhood streets, you may wonder where all the books inside come from. The answer, for some, is the Kids’ Book Bank.

The “take a book, share a book” initiative is further supported by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and the Kids’ Book Bank, with the latter providing resources to keep libraries stocked. The network of participants throughout the city receive about 3,000 books each month, according to NCJW.

Volunteers from Kids’ Book Bank installed Cleveland’s first Little Free Libraries in the mid-2010s. A proliferation of outdoor bookcases boosted CPL’s 2023 Cleveland Reads challenge, which engaged residents in collectively reading one million books or logging one million minutes of reading time.