Teachers union hands out free books at Back to School Fair

Hundreds of Boston Public Schools parents, students and teachers browsed through and picked up one of 40,000 free books yesterday from the Boston Teachers Union as part of its annual Back to School Fair.

“This is a celebration of the start of the new school year and to bring together educators, families and the community,” said Jessica Tang, president of the BTU.

The fair drew dozens of families combing through books. Fifty local nonprofits were also at the fair to give families access to resources. Books were provided through a partnership with First Book, a nonprofit that aims to make high-quality books affordable for teachers and families.

It is part of the teachers union effort begun five years ago to get books into the hands of kids who may not have access to literature.

“We want to bring books to families,” Tang said. “We know literacy is dependent upon access to books.”

“Today is a great day,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said. “They are giving books out to probably thousands and thousands of kids in our city. A lot of teachers from all over the district came here to get books for their schools. A lot of parents came here. The BTU has done an incredible job in outreach to really further education. Anything we do as far as the future of the schools is really going to depend upon working with our teachers, working with our parents, working with our students to improving the quality of life of education in our system.”