Q: Do you accept book donations?

A: SMART Reading is only able to accept donations of gently used books at the Children’s Book Bank in Northeast Portland. We are unfortunately unable to accept book donations at any other location at this time. If you are in another part of the state and have used books to donate, we encourage you to donate them to other organizations in your community.  Please feel free to call your local SMART Reading office for suggestions for places to donate used books.

Thanks to longstanding relationships with leading publishers, we purchase new books to give away to students in our shared reading programs at a considerable discount. Because it’s most cost-effective for us to purchase new books, we encourage those interested in providing books to kids to consider making a financial donation instead. Click here to make a donation for books.

Q: I’m a children’s book author/publisher. How can I get my book(s) in the program?

A: SMART Reading currently works with a limited number of book publishing and distribution partners to ensure that our operations are cost-effective and efficient, while providing engaging and motivating books for kids in the program. To maximize our efficiency, we generally partner with vendors that can provide at least 20 titles in statewide demand for SMART Reading’s nearly 300 sites at or below our average per-book cost, among other criteria. If your organization would like to be considered for a partnership with SMART Reading, please contact us at SMART@smartreading.org.

We do occasionally partner with authors or smaller publishers/distributors who wish to donate single titles or smaller quantities of books to us. These prospective donations are carefully screened by SMART Reading staff. If you are an author or publisher who would like to have a book considered for donation, please send or deliver a single copy by mail to 101 SW Market St., Portland, OR 97201. Please note that we are unable to return books submitted for consideration.

Q: Do you have recommendations of good books that I can purchase for my family or friends?

A: You bet! Here’s a list of a few of our kid-tested and approved read-aloud favorites that will be sure to entice a young reader in your life:

• Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat
• Cookie Fiasco by Mo Willems
• The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin
• Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
• I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
• Paper Bag Princess (Revised) by Robert Munsch
• Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes by James Dean
• Press Here by Herve Tullet
• Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas  
• They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel
• We Are Growing! by Mo Willems
• Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle
• I’m New Here by Anne Sibley O’Brien

Other questions? Please contact your local SMART Reading office or call our toll free line at 877-598-4633.