Book Trust, an early literacy nonprofit organization, brought 77,939 free books to 9,407 Denver area students so far this school year — increasing access to literature and learning opportunities across the city.

Based in Denver, Book Trust is currently partnered with schools in 15 states across the country, and has provided more than 10 million books to elementary school students since its inception. Each school year, books are selected and ordered by students.

The nonprofit partners with publishing company Scholastic to deliver the books free of charge to schools for students to take home and build their own personal library.

Book Trust provides assistance to schools with a Title I designation, referring to public schools that receive federal funding to help students from low income families.

“This is a workforce development issue for me. We have to make sure that students can live thriving lives and knowing how to read is the Maslow’s of that in my book,” said Patience Peabody, the president and CEO of Book Trust.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory of motivation that proposes five levels of human needs: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, often depicted as a pyramid, according to simplypsychology.org.

Book Trust’s work comes at a time of discourse in the United States around children’s reading abilities after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person learning for several years, as well as the increase of technology impacting attention spans, according to the organization.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a program from the U.S. Department of Education which assesses state and national student academic achievement, reading proficiency levels have decreased in 4th graders since 2022.

“Our school was rated the lowest that a school could be rated coming out of the pandemic. Now we’re rated as a high-performing school… Book Trust is giving [the kids] some agency and is really helping to combat the learning loss that we experienced,” said Joey Denoncourt, the principal of College View Elementary School, a partner with Book Trust.

Founded in 2001 by Adrienne Schatz, Book Trust first started in Fort Collins supported by the Auspices Foundation. Five years later, the organization branched off and became its own registered 501(c)(3).

In 2023, the organization received over $2.3 million in funding from contributions and grants. Most donations come from private donors and foundations. It costs around $100 to provide books for each child for the school year.

Applications for the 2025-26 school year are open for administrators to apply online for a partnership with Book Trust.