In October 2023,  the Friends held their 12th Children’s and Teens’ Book Sale. The book sale is a great way to provide almost new books to the community at unbeatable prices. Studies show that kids who are read to for at least 20 minutes a day or read at least 20 minutes a day on their own, have better vocabulary and reading comprehension skills if they are reading books they enjoy. We are happy to be able to help parents and grandparents achieve those goals with the wide selection of books we had to offer.

We received close to 9,000 books from the community over the 5 donation days and sold most of them during the 5 sale days. The few hundred that were left were donated to the Friends’ Little Free Libraries, public schools in Linden, Kearny and Jersey City, the Mitzvah Circle (a non-profit that helps families in crisis), and Temple Emanu-El here in Westfield.

The best story of the sale (if you pardon the pun) involves a young girl who recently had a birthday party. Instead of gifts, she asked her friends to bring books that they no longer wanted so the books could be donated to the sale. The young lady showed up with a wagon full of books and a smile that melted our hearts. She even helped us sort her donations out on the floor. If all children are like her, the future is in good hands.

We couldn’t have done the sale without the help from 38 volunteers, Westfield’s BOE and DPW, library staff members, Peterson’s Wine Unlimited, Total Wine & More, and over 300 community members came through the doors. Those customers helped us raise $5,369.75 for the Friends to support Museum Passes, Saturday Children’s Programming, Books on Wheels, the Hale Speaker Series, library programs for Black History Month and Women’s History Month, the Native Seed Catalog and the new Lucky Day Program at the