Who We Are
The LiTEArary Society, Inc. is a grassroots, entirely youth-led, 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. A network of book clubs for young literary communities around the world, The LiTEArary Society’s mission is to end book deserts for preschool-aged children from disadvantaged families through donations of new, best-selling picture books. Members also host community read-a-loud programs throughout the year.
The name "LiTEArary" is a humorous play on words coined by our founder, Rania Zuri, who loves to drink tea and discuss literature with her bibliophile friends. In early 2020, Rania, then a freshman in high school, was volunteering at an international nonprofit organization where she helped build a small library for young girls, most of whom had never owned a book. After this experience, Rania founded The LiTEArary Society to combine her love of books with her mission to help end book deserts for underprivileged young children everywhere and address the issue of the “million word gap”.
Since then and under her leadership, The LiTEArary Society, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation headquartered in West Virginia, has become a youth-led movement and to date, has donated more than 192k worth of new books to more than 18,000 children in all 50 states.
45% of our nation's children live in neighborhoods that lack public libraries and stores that sell books, or in homes where books are an unaffordable or unfamiliar luxury. At the same time, two-thirds of the schools and programs in our nation’s lowest-income neighborhoods can’t afford to buy books at retail prices. That means that, today, 32.4 million American children go without books—even as study after study has shown that literacy is crucial to success in school, future earning potential, and the ability to contribute to the nation’s economy.—Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
The LiTEArary Society is driven by its leaders and members in its growing network of book clubs, nationally and internationally, to serve the literacy needs of underprivileged young children. Since its inception, The LiTEArary Society has grown into a family of social book clubs that collectively have donated thousands of new, high quality, picture books to children in need and participated in countless community read aloud events. Through the concerted efforts of an international network of clubs with like-minded, young book lovers, The LiTEArary Society pursues its mission with the hope of Inspiring Future Bibliophiles, One Book at a Time.
LiTEArary Society members generally meet twice a month and spend half of the meetings delving into and discussing an array of fascinating classic literature, as well as books about history, art, culture, and politics, over tea, of course! The second half of the meetings are spent on the club’s charitable early childhood literacy initiatives. The unique structure of The LiTEArary Society meetings provides members with an exciting way to participate in a fun book club, while engaging in meaningful community outreach.
If you are a student between the ages of 13-21 and are interested in starting a LiTEArary Society club, please contact us for a new club kit, which will have everything you need to get started. Children 12 and under may join The Lemonade Society, which is the 12 and under division of The LiTEArary Society.