Just a few miles from the wildfire evacuation zones, YA writer and high school English teacher Veronica Bane has watched the fires wreak incomprehensible damage to her city.

Veronica Bane Credit: Jessie Felix Photography

“It's hard to fully describe,” Bane says. “I grew up in San Diego. This wasn't my first wildfire, and we've obviously had wildfires in Los Angeles as well, but just the sheer scope of the devastation has been hard to process.”

The school where she works has been closed as ash rained down on it. It shares a campus with an elementary school, and she's been told some students who attend that school have lost their homes. She describes herself in this “weird space” where they have been lucky not to be personally impacted by evacuation orders or fires but are watching this devastation to their community.

Bane and her husband have brought contributions to donation sites and checked in on friends. Their guest room is ready for friends who might need it. But she wanted to do more and she saw a unique need that she could fill.

As an English teacher in a school without a library, Bane’s classroom library became the default library for the school. She sees every day the importance of the books on the student community and she knew classroom libraries and personal collections were being lost. She knew she could replace those books. She could get books into the hands of adults and kids who, like her, find comfort and escape in their pages. So she went to social media and reached out to teachers in need and the publishing and kid lit world who could help.

“I know this community, and I knew they would step up,” she says.

And they have.

On Sunday morning, Bane posted her request for donations on Threads and then Bluesky. It was reposted by actor Patton Oswalt and others.

“My notifications are a disaster,” she says.

The Google form for donations and requests soon had hundreds of submissions while teachers have been texting her with photos of their burned classrooms and stories of the loss. A nearby independent bookstore, Chevalier's Books, offered “an incredibly generous donation,” she says. She has heard from fellow authors and members of the children's literature community who are ready to send their titles and are talking to their publishers about sending more. She has quickly developed a system for sorting the titles she has and creating a manageable flow of future donations.

“I just feel incredibly grateful,” she says.

Bane understands that right now the greatest needs are essentials—food, clothing, a place to stay. But she has already had requests for books, from teachers who were quickly placed into temporary classrooms to parents whose kids are now going to school virtually and without access to a library. Bane has arranged drop-offs and is sorting and planning for more, all while watching the fires and winds and warnings. She intends to continue the book drive for however many months is needed, to be ready with the books when the people are able to take them.

“The way that this city has come together, I have never seen anything like it,” she says. Donation centers have been overwhelmed with contributions and volunteers, and everyone is checking in on each other, she says.

“It's been very weird. It's been a roller-coaster of horrible things, and then wonderful community and just praying that there's not another horrible thing.”