Book Access, Community Power, and a Refreshed Reading Space: A Conversation with Our Friends at Epic Books for Kids

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) recently joined forces with our friends at Epic Books for Kids to bring a brand-new Reading Corner to life at the Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA. With help from Epic’s dedicated volunteers, the refreshed space was transformed into a welcoming place where young readers can discover new books and experience the joy of reading. 

Following the build, students, families, and community members came together for a celebration filled with books, reading, and plenty of fun as they experienced the newly refreshed space for the first time. Once the festivities calmed down, RIF sat down with Kiki Burger, Epic’s Director of Communications, to reflect on the day, the importance of access to books, the power of community involvement, and what spaces like this can mean for young readers.   

Epic’s mission is to remove barriers between kids and books. How did you see that mission come to life through the newly refreshed Reading Corner in Hollywood? 

One of the things I loved about this project was that we weren’t asking kids to engage with reading in just one way. There were 1,000 new physical books donated by Epic and RIF, read-alouds, hands-on activities and the opportunity to explore digital books on Epic during the event. Every child connects with reading differently, whether it’s through a favorite character, an interesting topic or a format that works for them. Bringing all of those experiences together gave kids lots of different entry points into reading and the freedom to find what excited them. 

There was no shortage of reading fun throughout the event. What part of the day stood out to you most and why? 

The moment that stood out to me most was seeing the kids walk into the space for the first time. You could see the genuine awe on their faces as they took it all in. Sometimes you wonder if an experience like this will really resonate with kids, but their excitement was immediate and completely authentic. They were excited to explore, excited to see the books and genuinely excited to be in a place that was created just for them. 

Creating joyful, welcoming spaces for reading can have an impact well beyond a single day. What do you hope this Reading Corner will mean for the children and families who use it in the years ahead? 

I hope the Reading Corner becomes a place kids genuinely want to spend time. Before this, many of the books available to kids were very dated, some were from the 1990s, including old science books and encyclopedias, and they often felt more like textbooks than books kids would naturally want to pick up for fun. Now, they have thousands of brand-new chapter books, picture books, graphic novels and more, giving them a much wider range of stories and subjects to explore. 

When books are part of an environment that feels comfortable, inviting and relevant to kids, reading can become something children choose to do in their free time rather than something that only happens for an assignment. I also hope the variety of books gives kids opportunities to keep branching out, whether that means finding a new series, learning about something they’re curious about or trying a book they might not have picked up before. 

Epic’s team played a hands-on role in bringing the Reading Corner to life. What was it like to see Epic employees come together around this project? 

So much of our work happens behind a screen, so there was something particularly meaningful about our team rolling up our sleeves and physically helping create a space for young readers. It was even more rewarding to then watch kids and families walk in and immediately make that space their own. Our team spends every day thinking about how to connect kids with books, but experiences like this bring us much closer to the children and families at the center of that work. It was a great reminder of why what we do matters. 

What role did books and reading play in your own life growing up, and how did that shape the way you experienced this project? 

I was an avid reader of The Baby-Sitters Club books growing up. I loved them so much that in third grade, I brought my entire collection to school and set up my own little library in the classroom. I would “check out” the books to my friends and keep track of who had which book. I’m pretty sure I read every single one in the series! Looking back, I realize how much those books shaped my love of reading. They made reading feel fun, social and completely my own. That’s what made watching the kids explore the Reading Corner so special to me. I know what it feels like to find a book or a series that you can’t get enough of, and I loved seeing the kids discover books that might become part of their own childhood memories. Hopefully, some of them will look back years from now and remember the Reading Corner as the place where they found a book they absolutely loved. 

When you think back on the day, what do you hope the children and families who joined us will remember most? 

More than anything, I hope they remember that they had fun with books. We talk a lot as adults about literacy skills, reading proficiency and learning outcomes, and those things are incredibly important. But for a child, a lifelong relationship with reading can start with something much simpler: a story that makes them laugh, a character they can’t stop talking about or the feeling that they need to know what happens next. I hope the day created some of those moments for the kids who joined us. 

After experiencing the Reading Corner come to life, what are you most excited about when you think about its future? 

What excites me most is everything that happens after the celebration is over. The 1,000 books Epic and RIF donated will now be picked up by different kids, shared with friends and revisited over time. One child might discover a favorite series, while another might find a subject that sparks an entirely new interest. We got to see the Reading Corner come to life on one very special day, but its real impact will come from all of those smaller reading moments that happen afterward. 

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