In 2018, The Portsmouth Rotary Club, in conjunction with the Portsmouth Public Library, Shawnee State University, and the South Central Ohio Educational Service Center started the Books Build Bridges program with the generous help of several other local sponsors. The foundation of the Books Build Bridges program is putting books in the hands of the children of our community.

Our program placed copies of Not a Drop to Drink by award-winning Ohio author Mindy McGinnis in the hands of all 8th grade students in each of the participating Scioto County schools. As part of our first Books Build Bridges effort Mindy McGinnis spoke to 8th Graders, a college class at SSU, a class at the Portsmouth STEM Academy, gave a lecture on podcasting to the Portsmouth Area Children's Theatre, and spoke to a public audience at the Portsmouth Public Library.

In 2020, teachers in participating school districts across Scioto County were provided class-ready Discussion Guides and materials and over 1,000 5th Grade students in our community were provided copies of The One and Only Ivan. Due to COVID-19 all of our in-person programming was necessarily canceled.

Now, during the 2021-2022 school year Books Build Bridges has provided copies of New York Times Bestselling Author Neal Shusterman’s dystopian award-winning thought-provoking book Scythe to over 800 10th Grade Scioto County students. March 18th, 2022, Mindy McGinnis will once again join us to speak to the students about dystopian Young Adult Literature, including her own work. McGinnis will also meet with SSU students. These events are not open to the public. However, March 17th, 2022 from 6:00pm-7:30pm as part of Books Build Bridges, The Portsmouth Public Library will host a public Regional Author Meet and Greet including Mindy McGinnis, local author Jay S. Willis, Cincinnati author Kurt Dinan, and Maysville, Kentucky author Jack Adkins.