‘Bess the Book Bus’ makes a stop in Winterport

WINTERPORT, Maine (WABI) - Building home libraries and lifelong readers - that is the goal of Bess the Book Bus, a mobile literacy outreach that travels across the country giving out free books to kids.

The bus made a stop at Winterport Memorial Library Wednesday to help them celebrate the 100th anniversary of their building.

Each kid that stopped by got to go home with two books.

Maine children’s author and artist, Lucky Platt was there too.

She recently completed a mural for the library.

“This is really special to be able to be in person and to certainly be able to see kids look at the mural, noticing things, and I hope that continues to happen,” said Platt.

“When you open a book, it sorts of transports you. You might live in an inner city, you might live in a rural part, or in the mountains, but when you open a book, you can go anywhere. You travel when you open a book, so that’s kind of what that is all about,” explained Jennifer Frances, Founder and CEO of Bess the Book Bus.

Staff say they’re so happy to be celebrating 100 years of the building, and they’re looking forward to the next 100.

“We just feel so fortunate to be librarians here and bringing the love of books and all that we can give to our community,” said librarian, Susan Atwood.

“We’re so thrilled to see the community members coming out, kids and their families, and people that use the library all the time helping to celebrate this community kind of icon, I think,” said Marijke Visser, director of Library development at the Maine State Library.

Bess the Book Bus is celebrating 20 years this year.

They are just a few weeks away from giving out their millionth book.

They will be making a few more stops in Maine before they head off to New Jersey.

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