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Free books, lemonade, and a street full of stories: a bookmobile block party is coming to Midtown!
If you’re looking for something fun to do with your kids this Earth Day, Broadway between 36th and 37th Streets may give you the best of both worlds. It is shutting down to cars on Wednesday afternoon and opening up the streets to books as part of its On the Road: A Bookmobile Block Party.
House of SpeakEasy and the Garment District Alliance are throwing a Bookmobile Block Party from 11 am to 6 pm on April 22, and the whole thing is free and open to the public. There will be free books to take home, free lemonade, and live literary programming on a car-free stretch of Midtown Manhattan. Plus, there are no tickets or reservations. You can just show up.
Psst… Check Out 31 Earth Day Events and Activities Across NYC
Three Bookmobiles Will Be Rolling Into NYC
The Earth Day event marks the debut of House of SpeakEasy’s brand-new fleet of three bookmobiles, and each one is worth a look.
The newest addition features artwork by author/illustrator James Yang, while a shiny all-electric model is covered in the cheerful, unmistakable art of Richard Scarry (the famous Busytown guy). If your kids grew up with those books, they’ll recognize them immediately, and so will you.
The flagship truck is gearing up for a national tour this summer called “We the People,” timed to the 250th anniversary of American independence. The tour explores what American democracy means, from the founding documents to what those words mean for us today. It heads out June 9, traveling up to Maine and down to Georgia, dropping off free books along the way, but first, it comes to us in NYC.
Books Go Where They’re Needed Most
House of SpeakEasy has been running its bookmobile since 2017, distributing tens of thousands of free books across all five boroughs and 18 cities in 14 states. They specifically go where access to books is limited, and they give them away.
The tradition goes way back. America’s first bookmobile rolled out in 1904, and more than a century later, it’s still one of the best ways to get books into kids’ hands and hopefully, start them on a lifelong journey of reading.
The block party takes place on Wednesday, April 22, from 11 am to 6 pm on Broadway between 36th and 37th Streets. For more information, visit houseofspeakeasy.org
Psst… Check Out Celebrate Earth Day 2026 on Long Island
