We’re RE-IMAGINING what literacy equity looks like in st. louis. join us.

  • in st. louis, 97% of households will never interact with 100 books over a 20 year period.

    Unite Books

  • Black third graders in st. louis are the least likely to demonstrate reading proficiency at 25.7% in comparison to white third graders at 64.5% proficiency.

    St. Louis City Gov

  • 74% of our nation's incarcerated population cannot read proficiently. Incarceration impacts African Americans at a disproportionate rate.

Books are good

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Books are good ⋆

A “Books are good” experiment

Introducing “ONYX,” an Inchy’s Bookworm vending machine! ONYX will land in St. Louis in January of 2024. How does it work?

  • Users insert a token for the vending machine, and are able to pick a free book

  • Free books for infants and toddlers; grades K-12

  • ONYX Location: community centers, recreation centers (Official first location to be announced in January 2024)

  • Goal is to encourage reading, build in-home library collections and provide access to several genres of books

Donate today

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Donate today 〰️

Support Onyx, the Vending Machine

Your contribution directly supports ONYX, the free public book vending machine. Your contribution is tax deductible.

Donate a book to the vending machine

We are accepting books for infants, toddlers and grades K-12.

If there’s a specific book you want the machine to have, please purchase it from our Bookshop.org affiliate. Down with A****n! Be sure to ship to 2317 Cherokee St!

Support The Bookstore

With rising rent costs and upkeep of the bookstore, your support keeps us in business! We want to continue this work as long as possible.

Books Are Good

Who can deny that Books Are Good? We sure can’t! Original hoodie features sketch of the Gateway Arch among the stars, with “Books Are Good” written underneath. Black cotton hoodie.