Books for Teachers

Get Free Books for Your Classroom!

Funded by a generous grant from the Renée B. Fisher Foundation, the Books for Teachers program provides teachers in select Connecticut towns with $100 worth of books from Pequot Library’s Summer Book Sale for use in their classrooms or for professional development. 

With a selection of more than 100,000 items in over 60 categories, Pequot Library’s Summer Book Sale is one of the largest in New England, and is held in Southport, CT over five days at the end of July each year. This year the sale will run from July 26-30. Children’s books are usually priced around $2 each. Prices vary by day, and the pricing schedule will be published on our website before the sale.

To apply, please check the list of approved schools to confirm your school’s eligibility and click below to fill out the online form. Then, shop during the sale and check out at the designated Books for Teachers register on the Library’s front steps to stock your classroom library for free! 

Limited to the first 325 eligible applicants. Applications are limited to one per teacher.

The History of Books for Teachers at Pequot

In 2003, the Renée B. Fisher Foundation had a simple idea: to provide an abundance of books of all types and subjects to children whose access to reading materials might be limited. What better place to find a rich resource of books at affordable prices than a library book sale? Who better to drive student access to learning than their teachers?

To achieve this mission, the Renée B. Fisher Foundation and Pequot Library have partnered for nearly 20 years to put books in the hands of students through Books for Teachers, an award program that provides public school teachers with $100 award vouchers for free books and media at Pequot Library’s Summer Book Sale. Originally available only to teachers in Bridgeport and New Haven, the program expanded in 2022 to include select schools in Ansonia, Derby, Stratford, and Norwalk.