"I've always believed in reading. I think reading for pleasure is really important, and I believe that every primary school should have a library"
The doors open and 15 children pour past me into a room they designed but have never seen. This is launch day at James Wolfe School in Greenwich, the newest of ABC Book Club's school libraries – number 45, themed around an enchanted forest with twinkly lights – and until this morning it was kept strictly behind closed doors. The children chose the theme, built the mood board, shaped the room. Then they had to wait.
Jo, the woman who made it happen, stands to one side and watches. Later, over coffee, she tells me: "I can guarantee – I've built 45 libraries – I can guarantee that within five minutes, every single one of those children is sitting down with a book. And that's when I think: this is why I do what I do. Because it doesn't matter about the twinkly lights. As long as you've got them in there, you can get them reading."
I nominated Jo for our Local Treasures series myself, because her passion, creativity and sheer determination have turned a simple belief – that every child deserves a library – into a reality for thousands of children across the area, quietly transforming their lives. Watching her at work on launch day, I'd say I chose well. Once things wound down, we found a quiet corner and I asked her where it all started.
A football pitch in Lewisham
Jo was chair of governors at her son's primary school when she noticed what was missing. "I've always believed in reading. I think reading for pleasure is really important, and I believe that every primary school should have a library. We didn't have one."
The answer came from an unlikely place – a Sunday morning football pitch, and a chat with another dad. He turned out to own Acorn Group estate agents, a local business looking for a new direction for its charitable giving. "He came along, had a look at the school and was really blown away by the fact that we didn't have a library." He offered to fund one. And what he saw at the school changed the plan entirely. "He saw the mismatch between schools that really need books and people that have got books they don't need."
ABC Book Club was born to move books from one to the other, with Jo as a trustee from day one. Then COVID hit, Acorn Group estate agents moved on, and at a trustee meeting the question landed in her lap: did she want to take it on?
"And so that's what I've done. And I've done it ever since."
Tell me about one child and one book
I asked Jo for one child whose story stays with her. She didn't hesitate: Kenny.
He was head of the school council at one of her first libraries – and, by her own account, couldn't have cared less about books. "He was completely disengaged. He didn't read at home. He didn't have a family that modelled reading either." She's matter-of-fact about it. "That's absolutely a fair enough position to have."
Then came launch day. "When the door opened and Kenny saw what we'd managed to create for him, he was transformed. I could see the look on his face. He was so delighted. He couldn't believe that something so amazing had been done for them – that they'd actually been listened to, and their ideas were in there. It was just a place he wanted to be."
Bit by bit, he changed. He became a school librarian. "The teachers literally couldn't get him out of the room. And I feel like that's legacy, isn't it? Because now you've changed a non-reader into a reader. And then hopefully he'll read to his kids – as he possibly wouldn't have done before. And then maybe his kids will read to their kids. So it's a whole generational change."
Her own favourite? Anything by Julia Donaldson. "I love the way she puts things together."
The bit nobody expects
I assumed, wrongly, that Jo gets school holidays. "I'm doing five libraries over the summer. It's one of my busiest times – there are no children, no DBS checks needed, no obstacles."
The other surprise: she never has to look for work. "I've got social media channels and stuff, but as for going out and saying 'do you want us?' – I don't have to approach anybody. People come to us. Which is a dream scenario."
And behind the 45 libraries there's a small army of volunteers, two dedicated book-sorters, some contractors – but the engine of the charity, she says simply, is "kind of me. This is Jo."
The strangest donation
I had to ask. She thought about it, then laughed.
"A pair of socks. Someone put them in the bottom of a bag of books. You get to the end of it and there they are. I'm sure that was meant for someone else. They didn't make it into the library, though."
The donations that do make it in come from everywhere. Three women once jumped out of a plane to raise money for ABC. "Absolutely incredible. People are just lovely. Things come in from all different directions."
Jo's local treasure
Every Local Treasures interview ends with the same question: who's yours?
"My mum and dad. I can't do what I do without my family's support. My little dog needs looking after, and they take her when I'm busy. I can't do what I do without the support of everybody around me. Everyone who's involved in the charity – they're all local treasures to me."
Then she added one that made my afternoon. "And Ginkgo are a local treasure to me, because you collect books for us. You're part of the community."
So – that box of old children's books in your loft?
"Give them to me."
Jo laughs, then gives the proper answer: drop them into us at the Standard. We'll make sure they reach her.
Kelly Powell is local marketing manager at Ginkgo Financial.
