Every Bookshop Bundle is funding someone's first book.
Painting by Suburbs x Reading Out Of Poverty Collaboration
Running from 1st October 2026 to 31st March 2027
For the next six months, 25% of profit from every Bookshop Bundle we sell online is being donated to Reading Out of Poverty. It's a Melbourne-founded charity working with children from birth to five, in some of Victoria's most disadvantaged communities, to make sure they grow up with books in the house.
The collaboration
What the Bookshop Bundle is
The Bookshop Guide pairs one local bookshop per suburb, the ones worth going out of your way for, with a hand-drawn map you paint in as you visit each one. The Bundle gives you both together: the guide to follow and the map to fill in, so the crawl leaves you with something to keep.
Melbourne — a UNESCO City of Literature, with more independent bookshops per capita than almost anywhere else in the country. The original Bookshop Guide and Map, available now.
Sydney — a spread of styles from harbourside shopfronts to Newtown's secondhand shelves. The Sydney Bookshop Guide and Map, available now.
Perth — a smaller scene but a proudly independent one, anchored by Fremantle's long-running bookshops. The Perth Bookshop Guide and Map, available now.
Why this matters
The first five years are when a child's brain does work building the foundations for language, attention and connection. Paediatric guidance recommends reading aloud from birth for exactly this reason: the earlier it starts, the more it builds. Not every family gets that chance.
61%
of children in the communities Reading Out of Poverty works with don't own a single book
72%
have never set foot inside a public library
40%
of children from low-income homes struggle with basic reading skills before school even starts
What Reading Out of Poverty does about it
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Runs Pop-Up Libraries in places families already spend time, like laundromats, so books are there when they're not looking for them
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Distributes bilingual baby books to newborns with migrant and refugee parents
-
Delivers Read Aloud sessions in playgroups, modelling reading and language play for parents from day one
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Supports new parents with books and resources so a reading habit starts at home, not at school
Buy any Bookshop Guide, Bookshop Map, or Bookshop Bundle between 1 October 2026 and 31 March 2027, and 25% of the profit goes straight to Reading Out of Poverty. No extra cost to you, no separate donation step. The guide you'd have bought anyway just does more while you use it.
How the campaign works
Shop Book Shop Bundles
Twenty-four Melbourne suburbs, twenty-four independent bookshops worth the trip, and a map that keeps the story of every one you visit.
The Bundle pairs the Bookshop Guide, which pairs one great local bookshop with each suburb, from The Little Bookroom in Brunswick East to Readings Carlton, with a hand-drawn map of Melbourne to paint in as you go. Every stop becomes a coloured-in piece of your own city, not just a name ticked off a list.
It's the excuse for a proper Saturday: pick a suburb, find the shop, come home with a book and a little more of the map filled in.
For the next six months, 25% of profit from every Bookshop Bundle sold goes to Reading Out of Poverty, helping get books into the homes of kids who don't have any.
What's included:
The Bookshop Guide, listing one bookshop per Melbourne suburb
A hand-drawn Melbourne map to paint in as you visit each one
Twenty Sydney suburbs, twenty independent bookshops worth the trip, and a map that keeps the story of every one you visit.
The Bundle pairs the Sydney Bookshop Guide, which pairs one great local bookshop with each suburb, from harbourside shopfronts to Newtown's secondhand shelves, with a hand-drawn map of Sydney to paint in as you go. Every stop becomes a coloured-in piece of your own city, not just a name ticked off a list.
It's the excuse for a proper weekend: pick a suburb, find the shop, come home with a book and a little more of the map filled in.
For the next six months, 25% of profit from every Bookshop Bundle sold goes to Reading Out of Poverty, helping get books into the homes of kids who don't have any.
What's included:
The Sydney Bookshop Guide, listing one bookshop per suburb
A hand-drawn Sydney map to paint in as you visit each one
Learn more about their work at www.roop.org.au
Fifteen Perth suburbs, fifteen independent bookshops worth the trip, and a map that keeps the story of every one you visit.
The Bundle pairs the Perth Bookshop Guide, which pairs one great local bookshop with each suburb, from New Edition in Fremantle to Planet Books in Northbridge, with a hand-drawn map of Perth to paint in as you go. Every stop becomes a coloured-in piece of your own city, not just a name ticked off a list.
It's the excuse for a proper weekend: pick a suburb, find the shop, come home with a book and a little more of the map filled in.
For the next six months, 25% of profit from every Bookshop Bundle sold goes to Reading Out of Poverty, helping get books into the homes of kids who don't have any.
What's included:
The Perth Bookshop Guide, listing one bookshop per suburb
A hand-drawn Perth map to paint in as you visit each one