I’ve recently been sharing a whole bunch of new free, downloadable, printable drawings on social media — all of which you can find on the Art page of this site. One of those drawings was this one:

A number of people suggestively mentioned that they’d be interested in WEARING such a drawing (like, on a T-shirt…), so I worked with Custom Ink to launch another fundraiser.

Once again, proceeds from this fundraiser will be put towards kids’ book access efforts.

Thank you, as always, for the amazing support!

~ Jarrett

Last week, a third-grade teacher in a Spanish immersion school asked me if I’d ever consider making a Spanish language version of my Kids Need Books of all Kinds art. I thought it was a fantastic idea, and as soon as she assured me I had the right translation (!), I whipped it up.

(And, by the way, you can now download a free, print-ready copy of that art here.)

Not long after I put the new art up on social media, people started asking whether they’d be a new, Spanish edition sale of T-shirts, too. I said that if there was sufficient interest, I’d work with Custom Ink to set up a new, Spanish edition fundraiser (Custom Ink requires a certain number of sales before shirts can print, so I needed to make sure). Well, the interest was more than sufficient. And so, here you go!

The #KidsNeedBooks of all Kinds Spanish Edition T-shirt is now available! You can order it here. Thank you, thank you — a billion times over — to all who have shared and supported these efforts of mine. Together, we have raised over $23,000 to help eradicate book deserts and help get books into the hands of kids who need them most.

~ Jarrett

Welp, this week has been a wild one. When I put my Kids Need Books of All Kinds art on a T-shirt using CustomInk, I honestly expected to sell 15, maybe 20 shirts, thereby raising a few hundred bucks for FirstBook. Never did I expect this:

That’s right: as of this post, 700 shirts have been sold, and the $10,000 mark was surpassed yesterday afternoon — and there’s still a whole week of fundraising left! It helped, certainly, that both FirstBook and CustomInk have been sharing about the fundraiser across their social media platforms (and thank you again to CustomInk for featuring the fundraiser for #FundraisingFriday):

But more than anything else, the success of this campaign is because of two things:

1. The astounding generosity of the kid lit community (especially that of educators and librarians, who we know don’t get paid even close to enough for the incredible — and incredibly important — work they do).

2. The wonderful, wonderful work that FirstBook does.

Of course, these two things are linked. FirstBook is “a nonprofit supporting teachers and students in the USA’s highest-need communities with books and educational resources.”

So many of the people who have purchased shirts have left messages expressing gratitude to FirstBook and appreciation for their work and mission. (And if you are an educator, and you still aren’t totally sure what FirstBook does — and what it might be able to do for YOU! — I can’t encourage you strongly enough to visit their site and learn more.) I couldn’t be prouder to be playing a role in equipping FirstBook to continue providing their support to our country’s teachers and students. THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased a T-shirt and/or shared the fundraiser. I am sitting here flabbergasted and with a very full heart.

~ Jarrett

Recently, I made a digital version of my Kids Need Books of All Kinds artwork, just so those educators and librarians who were printing copies of it would have a cleaner, crisper version to use (you can download YOUR free copy of the art here).

Shortly after I shared the new art, elementary librarian Amy Timmins got it onto a T-shirt!

And it wasn’t long after that that people began suggesting I make some T-shirts of my own, and make them more widely available. A couple specifically said I should use CustomInk to make the T-shirt, as I could do so risk-free, avoid having to deal with shipping any of the shirts myself, and — most importantly — because I could direct any proceeds toward an organization of my choice! It seemed like a no-brainer, and right away I knew what organization I’d fundraise for: FirstBook.

If you don’t know about FirstBook and the incredible work they’re doing, I highly suggest you check them out — especially if you are an educator, librarian, administrator, or creator of books. I chose them because I knew that every single dollar that went their way would be spent getting the best books out there into the hands of the kids who need them most.

So, I uploaded my art and set up a fundraiser.

The response simply BLEW ME AWAY. Within two hours, we’d raised over $1,000. Within six, we were over $2,000! As of right now, we’re just shy of $2,500, and the fundraiser hasn’t even been live for a full day! And I say “we” because this is, of course, a group effort — one more example of the kid lit community coming together to do something good for the kids. Perhaps not for the particular kids in your classroom or library, but like my pal Ro Menendez, teacher-librarian at Cannaday Elementary School in Mesquite, Texas, likes to say, “ALL kids are OUR kids.”

THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased a shirt and who has shared the fundraiser on one social media platform or another. I appreciate it, as does FirstBook. A member of their team reached out to me this morning to let me know exactly that.

Click here to access the fundraising page and get yourself a shirt!

~ Jarrett

Research shows that when kids own books, they read more and are more likely to self-identify as readers. It also shows that when kids don’t read during their summer breaks, their reading skills can get rusty and their interest in books can wane.

One of the largest reasons why kids don’t read during their summer breaks is that they simply don’t have access to any books. In an effort to counteract that problem in some small way, I’ve been giving away books all school year long as part of the #KidsNeedBooks movement and, in addition, gathering a separate bundle of books to now, at the end of the year, distribute to a couple hundred kids.

Where did I get these books?

Some of them are from my own personal collection – books that I have read and enjoyed (even loved!) but can’t, deep down, see myself ever rereading. In kids’ hands, these books are powerful. Some of them are powerful enough to dramatically redirect and improve lives. On my shelves, these same books can only ever hope to look nice.  (And I’m not knocking hanging onto books for their looks or the comfort of just having them around. Believe me – I still do plenty of that!)

The majority of the books, however, I’ve gotten elsewhere: at library sales (the sales my local branch holds has paperbacks for 50 cents, hardcovers for a dollar); in bookstores’ used, “hurt,” and remaindered bins or sections; from friends (including some very generous author friends!) and neighbors; and at yard sales.

I share all of this not because I want a pat on the back. I don’t. And honestly, none of this has been hard work. It’s been an absolute joy to find these books, to stack them up in my closet and think about the kids who will soon hold them in their hands, who will be able to say, “This is my book. Mine.”

I share all of this to help alert those who aren’t aware of the book deserts throughout our country, who don’t grasp the long-lasting damage that can result from a kid simply not being able to get their hands on a book to read. I share it, too, in the hopes that some of you will be inspired to gather your own stacks of books, to keep an eye out for them in your comings and goings, to pick through your bookshelves or put 10, 15, 20 dollars toward bettering and maybe even dramatically changing some kids’ lives. I mean, could there be a better investment?

Should you want more information about any of the above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me, either here, using my Contact form, or on social media. To learn more about the #KidsNeedBooks movement, click here, or search the hashtag on social media. And if you are an educator who would be interested in sharing some of the books pictured above with your students, fill out THIS FORM. I will be randomly selecting winners to receive books over the coming weeks.

~ Jarrett