The Book Bus aims to improve child literacy rates in Africa, Asia and South America by providing children with books and the inspiration to read them. Reading isn’t just one of life’s great pleasures, it is an essential life skill; it improves literacy, develops a positive attitude towards learning and is crucial to the academic and social development of young people. One in six adults around the world have come through childhood unable to read and write, a situation mainly due to a lack of books and the opportunity to read. In response to this situation the Book Bus was founded by publisher Tom Maschler with the aim of supplying books and making them accessible to children. In 2008 the Book Bus began delivering books to schools in Zambia and working with children to inspire them to read. The Book Bus is currently working to improve literacy rates at a community level in India, Zambia, Malawi and in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Our library work, book donations and assisted reading programme is helping strengthen the reading culture in schools resulting in a more confident reading population that is better equipped for the future.