TAMPA, Fla. — “Bess the Book Bus” is becoming quite popular at Hillsborough County’s Transformation Network elementary schools. 

It’s a pop-up book fair, only the books are free.

What You Need To Know

  •  Bess the Book Bus visits Hillsborough County's Transformation Network schools

  •  Each child receives two free books, four times per year

Jennifer Frances, who started the nonprofit, said her goal is to help develop the next generation of readers, and by providing kids with books to help them build their own home library.

And she’s doing just that.

Frances started her nonprofit in 2002. Since then, she said she’s given away more than one million books. 

Frances recently got to know a group of first graders at Shaw Elementary School in Tampa. It was her second time visiting this year.

“Every time we see each other, we’ll read some stories together, right? And then, we’ll get to go shop for brand new books to take home and read,” she said to the students, as they cheered, excited to shop for new books.

First, she reads them a couple of books, before heading out to Bess the Book Bus.

“They’re going to come out and everybody’s going to get to shop for two new books. Theirs to take home,” Frances said. “So they’ll see us four times this year. So over the year, they’ll get to choose eight books to take home.”

The kids then line up and head outside to the bus. 

“This is our Joy of Reading Pop-Up Book Fair,” she said. “We are currently bringing this to 14 of our Transformation Network schools on a regular basis, so each of these schools will see us four times throughout the year.”

Frances hands out two tickets to each child, with each ticket being good for one free book.

She said she named the bus after her nana, Bess, who she credits for making her a reader. 

“She was very instrumental in developing my love for reading and my cousin’s love for reading,” Frances said. “She would take us down to the library or the bookstore and buy us books, and read to us, so reading became a really integral part of my life.”

While on the bus, Frances helps each student find the perfect book, which she says is important, and one of the main reasons she wanted to share her love of books with kids who may not have their own nana Bess at home. 

“Even as a kid when I was in really tough situations, or maybe we couldn’t go on a vacation, or there were certain things we couldn’t do, I was always able to slip into a book, open the cover and go anywhere and I thought that would be something beneficial for kids in our community,” she said.

Now, nana Bess’ love for books and reading lives on through Frances, and thanks to Bess the Book Bus, it will continue to live on through generations to come.