These book vending machines are part of a publisher’s plan to get kids reading

When you’re 6, there’s nothing quite as exciting as a vending machine. With a few quarters of pocket money, you have access to a world of Snickers bars, popcorn, and gummy bears.



Scholastic, the century-old children’s book publisher, wants kids to feel a similar joy when receiving a new book to read. For the past few years, it’s been experimenting with installing vending machines full of books around the country, particularly in places where children don’t have as many books at home.



On the surface, book vending machines look similar to those that dispense snacks or beverages. But inside there are tidy rows of kids’ best-sellers published by Scholastic and other companies, including popular titles like Dog Man ; Eyes That Kiss in the Corners ; and Norman the Slug With the Silly Shell . The machines don’t take regular currency. Instead, the organization that owns them gives kids tokens for good grades, acts of kindness, or any other behavior it wants to incentivize, which the kids can then exchange for a book.



So far, the effort has been a hit with schools. Now Scholastic is rolling out its book vending machines in more locations, including YMCAs, hospitals, and courthouses. It’s an innovative approach to improving literacy in the U.S. and, more broadly, encouraging a love of learning, which is correlated with success in school and beyond. “We want to have [the machines] anywhere you find kids,” says Dwaine Millard, Scholastic’s SVP of sales and partnerships, who spearheaded the development of these machines.



[Photo: courtesy Scholastic]



The Power of Owning A Book



The U.S. is in the midst of a literacy crisis . The 2023 National Assessment of Education Progress found that only 43% of fourth graders in the country are above the proficiency level for reading. For students in marginalized communities, the numbers are worse: Only 17% of Black students and 21% of Latino students can read proficiently by fourth grade.



There are many reasons for this, but a big one is that many children don’t have access to books. While they may encounter books in school or at a public library, there’s a lot of data showing that having access to books at home is crucial to their academic achievements . This is partly because children tend to lose some of their learning momentum on weekends and vacations when they’re not in school. Having books at home allows them to continue deepening their reading skills outside of the classroom. “Children have 6,000 awake hours [in a year], and only 1,000 of them are at school,” Millard says. “The question is how we can work with families to impact the learning that happens outside of school.”



But having access to books at home isn’t just related to a child’s success at school. It’s also shown to have an impact on their long-term success in life. Researchers have found that adults who grew up with books at home are more likely to find work and have higher reading, math, and technological skills compared to their peers with fewer books at home.



Many organizations are devoted to making sure kids have access to books. Dolly Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995 to gift books to young children in under-resourced communities. So far it has mailed out more than 2.4 million books to kids in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K., and Ireland. And a new organization called For the Love of Reading aims to “flood” neighborhoods with free books that feature protagonists of color.



Scholastic is also involved with helping to deliver books to children in need. It partners with organizations like Save the Children and the National Book Foundation to give away free books at Scholastic Book Fairs and other venues.



[Photo: courtesy Scholastic]



The rise of book vending machines



Book vending machines aren’t entirely new. In 1822, a bookseller in England called Richard Carlile tried to develop a book-dispensing machine so that he could sell banned books like Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason without getting thrown in jail. Customers turned a dial and deposited coins, and their book dropped out. In 1937, Penguin Books released the Penguincubator, which dispensed paperback novels in much the same way—and at the same price—as a pack of cigarettes. In more recent years, several vending machine companies have tried to develop book dispensers but none have become as popular as candy or soda machines.



Scholastic’s Millard first learned about book vending machines in 2018, when he came across a company called Global Vending Group that had just developed a machine with slots sized for children’s books. Several schools had already purchased the $5,000 machines, but Millard soon discovered that administrators were struggling with the logistics of replenishing them, having to both pick books of a certain size and make sure they were appropriate for children of different reading levels.



“Suddenly, you had this good idea that . . . had become complicated,” Millard says. “But this is something we had the expertise to solve for them, and we could take one problem off their plate.”



It occurred to him that a book vending machine could be a more effective way to get books to children who need them. For one thing, book donations tend to be one-off events, but a vending machine can be accessed year-round, creating more engagement and getting kids excited about new titles that pop up. There’s also the fact that vending machines are inherently fun. “Vending machines are associated with pleasure,” Millard says. “Even for adults, there’s a nostalgia around them. We want to associate the book with moments of joy.”



Book vending machines catch on



Scholastic now partners with Global Vending Group on a program in which an organization buys the machine and connects with Scholastic to receive shipments of books that are suited to the machine as well as the specific needs of the children in their community. Each new shipment of books costs about $1,500. The goal is to select books that kids will be excited about (something Scholastic has a lot of data about via the books that kids choose to buy at book fairs). “We know that kids are devouring series like Dog Man , so we want those books in the machines,” Millard says. “But it’s also important to have books with diverse characters that kids can really see themselves in.”



Over the past five years, Scholastic vending machines have become increasingly popular. There are now around 10,000 of them in the U.S., most of them in schools. In some schools, PTA groups raise money to buy and replenish the machine. But in underfunded districts, Scholastic works with charities who can buy a machine for a school, and then pay to replenish it regularly.



The machines tend to sit in a prominent place in the school, where students walk by it and can check out the new books on display. Different schools have different criteria for giving out tokens. In some schools, where kids aren’t showing up at all, they might get a token for attendance. In others, kids might get tokens for good grades. “The key thing is that the kid sees the book as a reward,” Millard says. “They look forward to choosing their book. This creates an excitement around reading.”



Now Millard is thinking beyond schools to the many other places where a book vending machine might be helpful. There are many places where kids might spend time, like a pediatric unit at a hospital, or even a public library. “We’re trying to think in broader terms about how we can engage communities and families, so they’re equally committed to making books more accessible to children,” Millard says. “Everyone should feel like they are part of this effort. We’re all helping to build children’s knowledge and lay the foundation for their success in life.”