Bess the Book Bus Is Making the Rounds

Jennifer Frances isn't a bookseller, except for the occasional shifts she works at Inkwood Books [1] in Tampa, Florida. Instead, Frances gives books away.

Since 2002, Frances has been the proprietor of Bess the Book Bus [2], which she describes as a "mobile literacy outreach." The project, named after Frances' grandmother, is a nonprofit organization that distributes books to children around the country.

Bess the Book Bus with students in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Frances is 4,000 miles into her second major road trip with Bess, which she is chronicling on Facebook [3]. She has given away 5,500 books since leaving Tampa on May 4, and she hopes to reach 20,000 by the time she returns home in July. "This trip has been wonderful in ways that I don't think can even be described," she said.

In the eight states Bess has visited this year, Frances has partnered with schools and other organizations to collect and distribute books, and independent bookstores have been eager participants. "We combined her with our regular Thursday storytime," said Brandi Stewart, children's buyer at Changing Hands [4] in Tempe, Arizona. The store invited three local schools to bring their students to choose books.

Storytime at Changing Hands Bookstore featured a visit from Bess.

Just over a year ago, in March 2009, Frances had no idea what Bess' future might be. "We ran out of money, and we ran out of books, and I was at my wit's end," she said. She contacted First Book [5], a national literacy organization, and that led her to apply for funding from Superpages.

"They were initially going to do a book drive for us," Frances said. But in her funding application she had mentioned a possible literacy road trip, and Superpages jumped at the idea. "We were on the road less than five weeks later," and covered more than 13,000 miles last summer.

One of Frances' stops this year was New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, where she ended her trip in 2009. "We just didn't have enough time or books there," she said, but this year she was able to make up for it.

Bess returns to the Carver School in New Orleans.

Back in Tampa, Inkwood Books was one of Bess' early supporters. Frances began working there part-time as she started to turn her dream into a reality, and she still helps out from time to time, taking her salary in donated children's books. Store owners Carla Jimenez and Leslie Reiner were "the first people to ever do a book drive for us," Frances said.

"She first connected with us, I think, as a customer," said Reiner. "What she really enjoys is reading to kids and putting books in their hands."

Stewart, at Changing Hands, agrees. "I can't wait to see her next year," she said.