Our Story
In 2007, Sohayle Sizar started The Bring on the Books Foundation as a local book drive at his high school, Council Rock High School South, with the help of his French teacher Madame Elizabeth Kohl. Social Studies teacher Dave Jacoby knew of Sohayle’s interest in reading and showed him that the old books at his high school were going to waste — laying unused in storage closets or getting thrown out. Sohayle began finding the books a home and with the incredible help of Madame Kohl, he was able to donate thousands of books to schools in urban Philadelphia.
Sohayle’s initiation of book drives continued when his younger sister, Hediya Sizar, now former Executive Director of the Foundation, entered high school and ran the organization throughout college.
Together, brother and sister took their passion of storytelling and reading by spreading it to other high schools and college campuses. In 2012, Bring on the Books became an official non-profit and raised over 95,000 books at local high school and college campuses.
Today, Bring on the Books continues as a student-run organization that aims to tackles the access-to-books gap across the U.S.