Book Lovers Reunite for the Shanghai Mamas Book Swap

Shanghai booklovers reunited once again for the Shanghai Mamas Book swap event. Over 3000 books were dropped, swapped, and donated for our March event. The book swap, which was started 2 years ago at coffee morning, has exponentially grown and we love seeing the community come together for the genuine passion of reading.

This event, led by Shanghai Mama Sarah Cox, takes a team effort to organize the logistics beforehand in order to make the book swap such an enjoyable experience. All the books are collected beforehand at various drop locations around the city and then organized by age, language, and category for the day itself. We would like to sincerely thank all our neighborhood volunteers, drivers and especially Melissa Lam (and team) at EF for hosting us once again. 

In total the event raised 5,442 RMB for our charity partner, Lifeline. Registered guests can donate books for swap credit or purchase books for 15 RMB each (or both!) Furthermore, the remaining books were donated to APM, which runs a used book swap for charity, as well as to the SCIS Girl Scout Troops Bookworm project. The Girl Scouts project will help to build a library for school kids in the Gansu Province.

Our next swap will take place in the fall. In the meantime, check out the photos below and keep on the lookout for registration to join us in the next swap. 

Swipe for more photos

Donations and Storage

We realize that this summer will see the departure of many families. If you would like to donate your books towards our next book swap, please contact us via the QR below or email us at 

[e-mail]. We are also looking for a storage partner to house the books in advance of our swaps, so please reach out if you can support or know of any logistics providers.