Zora’s Garden Book Drive
The Zora’s Garden Book Drive is a community-powered literacy initiative inspired by the life and legacy of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the greatest storytellers of all time.
Zora’s Garden reimagines Zora as a child learning how to tell stories in the garden alongside her mother, honoring the roots of her imagination long before her literary voice was recognized by the world. The book invites children to see storytelling as something they already belong to.
Through community donations, copies of Zora’s Garden are gifted as seeds for the imagination and planted in classrooms, schools, libraries, and community organizations. These sites are known as garden beds, places where stories are shared, nurtured, and allowed to grow.
After books arrive at a garden bed, the experience continues through a virtual author visit with Rae, creating a shared storytelling moment that connects children to Zora’s legacy in an age-appropriate, joyful way.
The book drive exists to extend what has already proven possible when children are invited into storytelling through care, imagination, and joy.
Bookseeds → The books. Each copy of Zora’s Garden is a seed for the imagination.
Garden Beds → The places. Schools, classrooms, and organizations where seeds are planted.
Planting → When books arrive and are shared with children.
Storytelling → The sun. Storytellers bring warmth and light that help stories grow.
Author Visit → The sun shining. A shared moment where the story comes alive.
The Garden → All of us, growing together in honor of beloved storyteller Zora Neale Hurston.
Why the Book Drive Matters
Zora’s Garden centers Black joy in childhood, including curiosity, imagination, tenderness, and possibility. This matters deeply for Black children and children of color, and it matters for their peers as well.
When children of all backgrounds encounter Black and Brown characters rooted in joy, creativity, and interior life, it expands what is possible for everyone. It helps classrooms and communities become places where no child’s experience is reduced to struggle alone.
The Zora’s Garden Book Drive exists to place that vision into shared learning spaces where children can imagine together, grow together, and see storytelling as something living and accessible to them.
How It Works
Books donated through the Zora’s Garden Book Drive are given as bookseeds for the imagination and delivered to classrooms and organizations called garden beds.
Once books arrive, each garden bed is invited to schedule a virtual author visit for a shared storytelling experience.
Thirty books is the foundation that allows a full classroom or group to experience the story together. It is the starting point, not the limit.
Learn more at zorasgarden.org