LINDENWOLD, New Jersey (WPVI) — A South Jersey teacher is changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in his community by giving them the gift of books.
Lindenwold High School English teacher Larry Abrams started the nonprofit “Book Smiles” to donate gently used books to anyone who may not have access to them.
“If they’re reading on level by the time they’re in 4th grade, they’re going to be academically successful,” said Abrams, who is on a mission to spread what he calls “book wealth.”
“It’s a term that we made up and it’s an appropriate term because we need to start looking at used books as being a commodity,” he said.
It’s an idea he’d been thinking about for years, starting when he had a student who was also a mother who didn’t have any books for her baby.
“You have kids on the other side who have no books growing up,” …