Celebrating Booksgiving Day!

Half Price Books knows the importance of getting books into the hands of kids who need them. Our founder, Ken Gjemre, once said “Books should fill our lives, not our land.” And we’ve taken that mission to heart. In 2012, we started celebrating the importance of donating with our own holiday, Booksgiving Day, and since that year, we’ve donated more than 11 million books to those in need!

Now in its ninth year, Booksgiving Day will take place Saturday, November 20, 2021. It’s a day to celebrate the spirit and legacy of donating and giving in all forms, so celebrate by donating to your favorite causes! Among many great charities, Half Price Books enjoys supporting local literacy organizations in our markets each year.

While we’ve donated to many incredible organizations over the years, including the YMCA, Baylor Health Systems, Boys & Girls Clubs, the Junior League, Heart House, the Girl Scouts and many more… this year, one spectacular place we donated books to was Orion Jean’s Race To Kindness. Orion, a 10-year-old Texas boy, first began his mission to spread kindness when his elementary school teacher suggested he enter the National Kindness Speech Contest. His winning speech about how kindness could change a nation spurred his mission on!  

He used his award money to help others, including purchasing toys for children in the hospital. His Race to Kindness campaigns have included missions like “Race to 100,000 Meals” to help food-insecure people in his community and “Race to 500,000 Books” to help him reach his goal of collecting 500,000 books for kids! Half Price Books was so inspired by this young community leader that we contributed 50,000 books to his very special cause. You can follow Orion’s journey on Instagram at @orion_monico_jean.

Remember, if you’re an educator or local non-profit organization in need of books, you can always fill out our Donation Request Form! .

To all booklovers and bookworms everywhere, Happy Booksgiving!