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Book Hollow

A family foundation, starting in South India

Real books. Warm rooms. No screens.

We build small, quiet rooms of printed books for children. We are looking for schools in and around Hyderabad to build the first ones with.

Bring a room to your schoolSee what a room is
A cushioned reading nook set into an arched alcove, with printed books on a shelf above

Why screen-free

The absence of a screen is the feature, not the limitation.

  • Printed books only

    Paper, ink, and the weight of a real book in a child’s hands. There is nothing to charge and nothing to plug in.

  • A place, not a shipment

    Most literacy charities move books from one place to another. We build the room the books stay in, so children have somewhere to come back to.

  • Quiet on purpose

    There are no tablets or e-readers in the room. It stays quiet enough that a child can get lost in a story.

Where we are

We have not built the first room yet.

There is no reading room yet. We are a new family foundation looking for a school in South India to build the first one with. When it exists, we will put photographs of it here, including the parts that are not finished.

What a reading room involves
  1. Now

    Talking with schools in and around Hyderabad about the first room

  2. Next

    Choosing the space with them and putting together the first collection of books

  3. After

    Opening it, and showing you exactly what it looks like

Hyderabad and South India

If you run a school, you already have the hardest part.

You provide a space and one person who cares. We provide the books, the shelves, the furnishings, and set it up for you, all at no cost.

Start a conversation
Portrait of Kavita Baireddy and Sean Baldwin, who established Book Hollow

Who we are

Book Hollow is a family foundation. We are not asking you for money.

We are Kavita Baireddy and Sean Baldwin, and we fund these rooms ourselves. There is nowhere on this site to donate, because we are not raising anything. What we need is schools. Write to us and one of us will answer.

Kavita & Sean