Education & Libraries

At Fandom Forward, we work to make truthful education accessible to all and advocate for public libraries. Here’s some of our campaigns:

Book Defenders

2023

In our second year of Book Defenders, fan activists joined together to combat the uptick in book bans across the country, especially for books with LGBTQ+ and BIPOC stories. We hosted an Action Hub on our website for folks to easily access actions throughout the campaign, including sending postcards with We Need Diverse Books, signing a petition in support of Vandegrift High School’s Banned Book Club, and of course, donating books. Throughout the US and Canada, almost all of the 421 books donated by fan activists went to Little Free or Public libraries, with nearly 70 of those books featuring people of color, LGBTQIA+ people and/or disabled people as main characters or as the author(s). We also shared two toolkits this year encouraging participation by way of book donations and involvement with local library boards. 

For each action taken, Book Defenders earned points towards the first-ever Book Defender Awards, such as Best Dressed (Book and Defender), Most Heartwarming Messages, and Top Book Defender. Fandom Forward’s book club read one of our favorite banned books, Heartstopper by Alice Oseman, and had a watch party of the TV adaptation. Fan activists gathered on Discord throughout the campaign and during Banned Book Week to take action together and discuss more favorite banned books. 

2022

In 2022, Fandom Forward introduced Book Defenders, an updated version of Accio Books (see below) that focused on fighting book bans and supporting universal access to books by getting stories into the hands of everyone who needs them. Over the course of the Book Defenders campaign, fan activists donated 1,200 books in 3 countries. Each donated book and action taken counted as points toward our house cup, themed after favorite book genres: Haunted House (horror, thriller, mystery, true crime), The Lab (nonfiction), Dragon’s Lair (fantasy or science fiction), and Once Upon a Time (romance, historical fiction, retellings). The winner was Haunted House!

We also hosted a number of live events to discuss why so many communities need our help fighting book bans and how to get involved in keeping challenged books on the shelves. We were joined by Black Nerds Create, We Need Diverse Books, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and PEN America, NaNoWriMo, some rockstar trans and nonbinary authors, student activists from across the country, and more. Through these events, as well as the actions taken during Banned Books Week, 500 activists were trained to fight book bans in their communities! Fandom Forward’s book club also read three banned books: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, Here and Queer by Rowan Ellis, and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Lastly, we offered a free writing workshop series that trained 300 writers to keep sharing their stories in the face of book censorship. These workshops focused on writing uncolonized narratives, the importance of writing stories that might be challenged, and how cultural expectations inform storytelling. 

Accio Books

Through our annual Accio Books campaign, our members have donated over 400,000 books and have helped build and stock libraries around the world. These libraries can be found in Rwanda; community centers in the Mississippi Delta, New York City; Detroit, Michigan; Kansas City, MO;  Gateshead, England and Leiden, The Netherlands, Masaka, Uganda, and San Ardo, CA. For an overview of each year's accomplishments, see below:

2020
Fandom Forward’s official partner for Accio Books in 2020 was Anne Beers Elementary in D.C.! Anne Beers is a PreK-5th grade Title-I elementary school that supports 450+ learners within the general, autism, and special education populations. Even in the tumultuous year that was 2020, wizard activists opened their hearts and bookshelves to donate more than 1,735 books to ABES as well as schools, libraries, shelters, and children’s hospitals across the US!

2019

In 2019, Fandom Forward partnered with Reading is Fundamental to send books to three partner sites: San Ardo Union Elementary School in San Ardo, CA, Bernie's Book in Chicago, and The Book Fairies in New York City. We sent nearly 8,000 books to our partner sites, and a total of 31,081 books to 71 literacy programs, including schools, community centers, libraries, and children's hospitals! This year, Hufflepuffs once again took home the cup with an impressive 89,661 points! We guess kindness and hard work pay off!

2018

The 2018 Accio Books campaign was a huge success! This year we partnered with The Boys and Girls Club of Puerto Rico, helping them rebuild their libraries after Hurricane Maria. We collected a total of 29,619 books donated to over 70 literacy programs, including classrooms, after school programs, libraries, prisons, non-profits, and more! In May, we also partnered once again with the American Library Association for National Library Legislative Day, writing letters and making calls to the U.S. Congress in support of library funding and participating in trainings with ALA advocacy experts! This year, the badgers pulled into the lead with our House Cup! Congratulations to Hufflepuff for seizing the cup at 42,478 house points!

2017

The 2017 Accio Books campaign was a huge success! This year we partnered with Words Alive, an organization that connects children, teens, and families to the power of reading throughout southern California. In the spirit of rebellion, our own Apparating Library Book Club introduced the Resist Readathon, reading four books guaranteed to fuel hope and resistance. Overall, we collected a total of 44,438 magical books! 6,000 of those books traveled to Words Alive and were given away in a fun, start-of-summer Apparating Library!

Advocacy once again shined during Accio Books, kicking off with social media actions on Drop Everything and Read Day to support literacy activists who were fighting to save libraries from extreme budget cuts in Saskatchewan, Canada. Wizard Activists from around the world shared their support via #SaveSKLibraries, and the pressure worked - all funding was restored! We also partnered once again with the American Library Association for National Library Legislative day to send owls to Congress, reminding them to protect library funding and digital privacy in the U.S. All together, wizard activists completed a whopping 980 advocacy actions for libraries!! Ravenclaw, once again, took the House Cup at 65,637 points. Will anyone ever beat those blue and bronze corvids?

2016

In 2016, Accio Books grew in incredible ways! We partnered with Good Shepherd School in Masaka, Uganda - a school built, in part, by our very own chapter, Masaka HPA. Wizard activists raised enough books to open a brand new library at Good Shepherd School and still donate to over 50 other organizations around the world. How many books did wizard activists raise, exactly? A record-shattering 101,190 books. Together with Masaka HPA, Books for Africa, and Out of Print Clothing, we even raised enough funds to send 23 new laptops and tablets to the library that wizard activists built.

We also partnered once again with the American Library Association in support of National Library Legislative Day, and for a second time that year, wizard activists crushed all previous records with 868 advocacy actions for libraries! We also celebrated World Book Night Book Riot in 3 cities! A new library + a new record + a new generation of library activists = one incredible Accio Books! Ravenclaw held fast to their House Cup title with 155,753 points. Can the birds be beaten?

2015

This year's Accio Books was bigger than ever, thanks to our incredible members and chapters. Participants donated an unprecedented 64,909 books to readers in need all over the world. They also rocked the Tri-Library Tournament, sending over 17,000 books to Operation Breakthrough in the USA and Borderline Books in the UK and the Netherlands. These books began finding new homes when the Apparating Library appeared in Kansas City on June 27, 2015.

However, this was more than just a book drive. Members spread the power of story to the halls of the US Congress by advocating for libraries on National Library Legislative Day. We also launched Tales of Chapters, which encouraged chapter members across the world to share popular stories that influenced their worldview as a young person. In 2015, Fandom Forward didn't just imagine better — we made better happen by synthesizing service, advocacy, and empowerment into one amazing and impactful campaign! Once again, Ravenclaw won the House Cup with 230,950 points.

2014

In 2014 we broke all previous Accio Books records, as we raised an astounding 53,009 books for schools and communities worldwide! Of that total, 43,614 were brought in by our Chapters program. Chapters' efforts spanned five continents. The Deluminators, an Australian chapter, raised 9,512 books, unequivocally winning the annual Chapters Cup. Our primary recipient was the Brightmoor Community Center in Detroit, MI, where we held our first-ever Apparating Library book giveaway event on September 13th, 2014. Thousands of books were given away to children and families in need. The event bolstered the Apparating Library's growing reputation as the most magical library in the history of everything. Ravenclaw held the House Cup, bolstering other houses' determination to win next time around.

2013: LeakyCon

In 2013 at the Portland LeakyCon, Fandom Forward sprung a whole new level to the Accio Books game… attendees from all over gave up precious packing space and carted 727 books to LeakyCon to donate to Books for Kids, an awesome Portland-based literacy program.

2013

Read Indeed is a non-profit literacy organization with a very special mission: to achieve the vision of seventh-grader Maria Keller, who wants to collect and distribute one million books to needy kids by the time she's 18. This year, we partnered with the International Quidditch Association and NaNoWriMo, and we dedicated our annual Accio Books! drive to Maria's fantastic cause. Once again, our chapters and members rose to the task, and we donated 30,217 books to communities in need!

Ravenclaws finally put an end to Hufflepuff's domination of our Accio Books House Cup, donating over 11,000 books — over a third of our total number! Also, Edmonton PotterWatch of Edmonton, Alberta, ran away with our Chapters Cup after collecting a mind-blowing 6,703 books! How is that even possible?! Oh right, they have love in their hearts and a desire to change the world! Therefore, anything is possible!

2011

The Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School (BSNBCS) opened in September of 2010 without a library. For our 2011 Accio Books campaign, Fandom Forward members and chapters came together to fix this by sending in over 11,000 books (which our local NYDA chapter helped to sort). In August 2011, we were thrilled to help open the “Imagine Better” Library at the New Beginnings Charter School. The winner of the 2011 House Cup competition was Hufflepuff, which makes them the reigning Accio Books champion for two straight years! Go Badgers!

2010

In 2010, Fandom Forward members and chapters donated 41,415 books: half of which went to our partner The Delta Center for Culture and Learning. The Delta Center distributed those books to communities in need across the Mississippi Delta. The House Cup winners? Hufflepuff!

2009

In 2009, Fandom Forward launched our first ever Accio Books drive. Our goal for the first annual book drive? Collect and donate 500 books. The response? Fandom Forward members and chapters donated 13,481 books to local communities across the world and our partner The Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. Ravenclaw took the House Cup, thanks to special guest Head of House Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films).