Bernie's Book Bank

Bernie’s Book Bank sources, processes and distributes quality new and gently used children’s books to significantly increase book ownership among under-served infants, toddlers and school-age children throughout Chicagoland.

Bernie’s Book Bank is a 501(c)(3) organization that is the leading provider of quality books to under-served children in the Chicagoland area. They value moving children from poverty to gaining knowledge through reading which enables a legitimate pursuit of happiness. They believe that a child's pursuit of happiness is predicated on who they know and what they know, and children in poverty have no control over who they know. Bernie's Book Bank says, "their only way to succeed in life is through what they know, making reading the single most important skill a child needs to learn."

Bernie's Book Bank is named after Dr. Bernard P. Floriani. He was the son of a coal miner, and he lived without running water until he went to college on a basketball scholarship. Despite this, Dr. Floriani always had access to books and the opportunity for a good education, which motivated him to study reading education. He spent his entire professional life promoting literacy. When he passed, his son Brian Floriani, also known as Bernie Floriani Jr., wanted to honor his father through helping connect youth with reading. He realized the same thing that his father had, "reading is the single most important skill a child needs in order to contribute and function competently within our society." Brian Floriani created Bernie's Book Bank in 2009 where he sourced and redistributed books out of his garage to under-served children. Since their founding, Bernie's Book Bank has distributed over 20 million books.

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