The Mary Ladky Teen Award is a mentorship program for high school students interested in learning about literacy and making a difference in their communities. Its purpose is to support ongoing literacy development in teen years, as well as provide hands-on learning and valuable work experience.

When seven-year-old Clark Demeester learned that some children his age don’t have their own books, he took action! Clark worked hard for months, collecting gently used books to donate to the Book Bank. He organized a book drive with his Beaver Scouts colony and asked friends to bring book donations to his birthday party. Clark’s hard work paid off! He recently made an incredible donation of 577 books and earned the North Star Award—Scouts Canada’s highest achievement!

The Children's Book Bank turns 18 this month and you're invited to join in the birthday celebrations all month long!

We will also be reaching a major milestone sometime in May as we give away our 2 MILLIONTH BOOK! Keep an eye out—we'll be tracking the number of books we give away each day and have something special planned when we reach 2 million.

Professional Women’s Hockey League goaltenders Raygan Kirk and Jessie McPherson from Toronto Sceptres and Erin Silver, author of Women’s Hockey Fanbook joined The Children’s Book Bank for a magical event on Tuesday, April 7, in the Daniels Spectrum (home of the Regent Park Book Bank).

February marked the 1-year anniversary of The Children's Book Bank Jane & Finch! Over the past year, this new location has provided 34,255 free books to the Jane & Finch community, hosted 80 free field trips for local school groups, and provided a wide variety of free community programs including baby circle times, book clubs, and author visits.

At The Children’s Book Bank, we believe that empowering children to choose their own books is essential to building a love of reading. Banning books that aim to recognize the wide spectrum of human nature and long-underrepresented communities aims to erase and devalue the existence and experiences of our families, friends, and neighbours. Labelling ideas, histories and identities as dangerous is a defensive tactic meant to ease the discomfort of those who refuse to accept others who don’t resemble themselves or share their life experience. It keeps one group from seeing themselves, and another from understanding those whose experience differs from their own.

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will take place in northern Italy, from February 6 to 22, and will be followed by the Paralympic Winter Games from March 6 to 15.

To get your kids in the spirit of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games and help them learn about the inspirational athletes and history of these international sporting events, here are 10 books we think they’ll love:

The Children’s Book Bank celebrated Family Literacy Day on Saturday, January 24 by hosting a special storytime brunch with award-winning Toronto author and illustrator Barbara Reid. Despite the cold, snowy weather, 60 attendees joined us in the Daniels Spectrum Community Living Room for a cozy storytime followed by hands-on literacy activities and a pancake breakfast courtesy of Carousel Café.

Family Literacy Day is a special event takes place every year on January 27 to raise awareness about the importance of reading and learning together as a family. This year’s theme is “Make mealtime family learning time.”

To help you with your mealtime learning journey, here are 12 recommendations for books about food and family

We invite you to celebrate with us today as we host special storytimes and activities at all Book Bank locations!

It all begins with an idea.