13-year-old founder of Books N Bros aims to inspire kids to read

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Good Morning America)

published 22 January 2020

When kids teased Sidney Keys III about his stutter, he would pick up a book and got lost in its pages.

"Reading was kind of my escape from my stutter because in my head, I was able to visualize things — and play out all the events clearly," Keys told Good Morning America. He wanted to encourage other boys to read, and at age 10, Keys and his mom, Winnie Caldwell, launched Books N Bros. This book club focuses on African American culture and literature, and now has more than 250 members, ages 7 to 13, in the United States and Canada.

Keys, 13, lives in St. Louis, and loves finding interesting books and then sharing them with club members. "There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that go into Books N Bros," he said. "It just benefits so many people that it keeps me going." Keys wants to keep growing Books N Bros, and makes sure everyone is included; people can "adopt a bro," covering the cost for a member who can't afford it. Keys' story impressed the people behind the Disney+ series Marvel's Hero Project, and he was turned into a superhero for the show. "I always wanted to read books that had characters that looked like me, but I never thought that I'd see a comic book with me in it," he said. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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