JWB Book Bus Delivered 10,000+ FREE Books to Kids in July

Over the course of three weeks in July, the Juvenile Welfare Board’s (JWB) Summer Book Bus made 81 stops at community sites across Pinellas County and gave away 10,756 books to 5,378 eager young readers.

A partnership with Pinellas County Schools, the JWB Summer Book Bus visits underserved neighborhoods across Pinellas County to combat summer learning loss. It’s all part of JWB’s Early Readers Future Leaders Grade-Level Reading Campaign, helping mitigate summer learning loss while instilling a love of reading in kids of all ages. Reading on grade-level by the end of third grade is an important predictor of high school graduation and future success.

And that’s why, for each of the last eight summers, Pinellas parents and kids have been invited to hop aboard the JWB Book Bus to choose two free books. A retrofitted school bus turned mobile bookfair on wheels, the JWB Book Bus offers exciting reading choices for children from birth to 18. From animals to machines and from the Earth to the stars—whatever topic they want to read about, Pinellas kids will find titles they can’t wait to add to their home library

Dedicated volunteers—including elected officials, JWB Board and Legacy Board Members, and more—join us on the Book Bus each summer to help kids pick out their very own, brand-new books; they tell us that seeing that the joy and smiles on children’s faces as they peruse the bins full of books brings them back year after year.

With stops at community sites from Tarpon Springs to South St. Petersburg, the JWB Book Bus stops include public libraries, community recreation centers, neighborhood family centers, childcare centers, and more. See the full Book Bus Stop schedule here: https://www.jwbpinellas.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Book-Bus-Schedule-2025.pdf

This year JWB debuted the Meal Mobile, creating JWB-funded pop-up food pantries stocked by the St. Pete Free Clinic at 46 Book Bus sites along the way and giving away 3,945 boxes of shelf-stable food.

Knowing that children in Pinellas County face hunger every day—1 in 8 live in homes with low food security, meaning they do not have enough food at times for an active, healthy life—and that families are also facing rising costs for all their basic needs, adding the Meal Mobile to Book Bus stops helped ensure Pinellas kids had access to the nutrition they need to thrive over the summer.