2024 Tenikka’s Books for Kids: More than 8,500 books donated to Jacksonville Public Library

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Thanks to the incredible generosity of our community, more than 8,500 books were donated to Tenikka’s Books for Kids this year.

Since it launched in 2018, Tenikka’s Books for Kids has collected more than 30,000 books for local children.

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Books, and financial donations used to purchase books, were collected over a two-week period in March. All the books collected during Tenikka’s Books for Kids are given to children during the Jacksonville Public Library’s Summer Reading Program. The books are distributed at no cost to the children or their families.

Tenikka’s Books for Kids book collection drive serves two key purposes:

• One, it encourages children to read, thus preventing the “summer slide” where kids lose two to three months of what they learned in school.
• Two, it provides free books for children to build their own libraries at home.

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Action News Jax’s Tenikka Hughes, the driving force behind this effort, extends her gratitude to every person, business, or organization who donated. Tenikka also extends her thanks to the Jacksonville Public Library, Library Foundation of Jacksonville, San Marco Books and More, Bookmark Neptune Beach, and our Action News Jax Family Focus partners for making 2024 the biggest year yet.

Thank you for helping us give the gift of reading to local children and please make time to read with the children in your life!

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