‘Bess the Book Bus’ hits the road to create lifelong readers
Published 2:51 pm Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Jessica Saxby, communications advisor at Citgo, helps young Brenda Hunter Head Start students choose books Tuesday during a Bess The Book Bus stop. (Emily Burleigh / American Press)
Jessica Saxby, communications advisor at Citgo, helps young Brenda Hunter Head Start students choose books Tuesday during a Bess The Book Bus stop. (Emily Burleigh / American Press)
Jessica Saxby, communications advisor at Citgo, helps young Brenda Hunter Head Start students choose books Tuesday during a Bess The Book Bus stop. (Emily Burleigh / American Press)
Bess the Book Bus began its annual expedition across the United States this month to deliver book ownership to early elementary students. On Monday and Tuesday, the bus made stops in Lake Charles.
Based out of Tampa, Fla., Bess the Book Bus is a nationwide mobile literacy initiative that aims to bring the joy of reading and book ownership to students, educators and families in economically vulnerable neighborhoods. The bus makes 19 to 25 stops a year across the United States to provide free books to pre-kindergarten to first-grade students.
It was founded in 2002 by Jennifer Frances, and named after her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth “Nana Bess” O’Keefe. Nana Bess instilled the joy of reading in Frances and her cousin. And as someone from a family of “story lovers and storytellers,” she decided she wanted to share that passion with students.
“When I was looking for something to do in my community, I wanted to find something that I thought was a missing piece, but also something I was passionate about.”
Over the past 23 years, the bus has made stops in each of the 48 contiguous states. For the past 15 years, Lake Charles has been one of the bus’s first stops, she said. The bus visited J.D. Clifton and T.H. Watkins elementary schools on Monday, and Brenda Hunter Head Start and E.K. Key Elementary on Tuesday.
The bus’s Lake Charles visit is coordinated by Citgo Lake Charles Refinery each year. Jessica Saxby, communications advisor, said they partner with Bess the Book Bus to encourage reading in a meaningful and hands-on way
“This annual collaboration gives us the ability to really foster literacy and encourage reading from an early age.”
Frances said access and choice are the vital components of nurturing of love of reading in children. To become lifelong readers, kids need access to a variety of books both at home and in the classroom. This way they not only have consistent access to reading materials, they are able to engage with literature that they are interested in, she said. This is turn fosters a local culture of reading that inspires widespread enthusiasm for literacy,
“When you get that choice, it creates an ownership mentality, and that translates into having an identity as a reader,” she explained. “I want them to know it’s not just about a test score. … I want them to really think about the joy of it.”
Before heading outside to choose a book from the bus, students were treated to Frances reading of “The Little Green Hen” — a children’s book about friendship and collaboration.
