Not a real life magic school bus trolley pulling up to Baltimore’s most needed areas.
And at the helm is Baltimore-based Storybook Maze, a self-dubbed “radical street librarian” that has steered her green and gold trolley to book deserts across B’more to boost literacy.
But more importantly to a destination where few kids get a chance to travel, their imagination.
Maze went viral on TikTok for delivering free books to hundreds of kids around Baltimore in her magical trolley.
“The green and gold vehicle transports children to a “magical” place where they can discover which genres excite them and develop an appreciation for reading,” Maze told TODAY.com.
Maze got the brainchild for the library trolley in 2024. She was on her stoop, reading to her nieces when local kids started joining in to listen. After wrapping up storytime, she encouraged the kiddies to keep reading at home.
“I was like, ‘OK, you guys can go home and read a book.’ And they told me they don’t have any books at home,” she recalls to Today.com
The aha moment inspired her to continue the storytime stoop sessions to the neighborhood kids on the weekends and become a librarian.
But when the kids she saw at work weren’t the same she read to on the weekends, she decided to quit her job to combat book deserts in her area.
According to Dr Susan Neuman, professor of childhood literacy at NYU, book deserts are “places that are virtually bereft of books in a community.”
“My street in Baltimore was one of the worst book deserts,” Maze told Today.com “So it was around (the COVID-19 pandemic) that I quit my full-time librarian job and took to the streets as a radical street librarian.”
She passed out books from her trunk, brought books to little league games and put a book vending machine at the local swim center.
Last year, Maze launched the library trolley by reinventing it into a Polar Express themed scene to set a magical tone.
The library trolley has been rolling ever since. Making frequent stops at football practice in the Park Heights area of Baltimore, local parks, back-to-school events and festivals where she partners with local businesses.
Today reports that 50 to 130 readers board Maze’s trolley a day.
“I feel like my business is really about the magic of reading and how transformative it is to your life … From the third grade on, (children are) reading to learn. So if they don’t hit that benchmark, they get left behind. The biggest way to help with their literacy is having abundant book access.”
To support Maze’s fundraiser and GoFundMe click here.
