Brave New World Comics, a comic book shop located in Newhall, has gathered thousands of books from Santa Clarita residents to donate to The Book Truck, a nonprofit charity that helps deliver free books to children and teenagers in need.

When the “Safer at Home” order was issued by Los Angeles County back in March, Brave New World Comics was one of dozens of small businesses in Santa Clarita forced to temporarily close their doors.

However, despite being closed, the Newhall-based comic shop decided to use the time to help those in the community in need.

“When this happened, we wanted to partner with a charity to work with within our community,” said Andy Liegl, owner of Brave New World Comics. “Our M.O. has always been reading and getting kids to read more and more. So in a time when kids are being shuttered at home, what’s a better time to get them off a screen and into a book?”

Having fallen in love with reading as a six-year-old, Liegl decided to partner with The Book Truck, a nonprofit charity that helps deliver free books to children and teenagers in need using a repurposed food truck.

“They literally drive the truck around L.A. County and let kids come on the truck and just pick books for free,” Liegl said. “In a post-COVID world, they’ve adapted, and they’re sending out care packages to foster homes, under-serviced communities, schools whose kids don’t have anything to do because they can’t send a Chromebook home to all of them.” 

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For the past two months, customers and Santa Clarita residents have dropped off books at Brave New World to be donated to The Book Truck. By the end of May, the store had gathered roughly 3,500 books, ranging from individual single issues of comic books to large prose novels.

“You cannot say Santa Clarita doesn’t know how to give,” Liegl said. “If every kid got one, that’s 3,500 kids that just got a book in their hand.”

Santa Clarita residents have not been the only people to donate to Brave New World’s cause.

“We’ve had a handful of comic book writers and artists who have called and donated money with which we then pulled from our stock to donate to the book truck,” Liegl said. “So it’s all-new product that they donate money for in this time to help. It obviously helps us stay viable and stay open, but it’s also them giving as well.” 

Liegl says that he plans to maintain the relationship between The Book Truck and Brave New World Comics as Santa Clarita enters a post-COVID-19 world.

See Related: ‘Fear Is The Mind-Killer’: How A Newhall Comic Shop Is Adapting Amid Coronavirus Concerns

“We’re going to be doing this for at least throughout 2020,” he said “It allows us to continue doing community-related things by, in a way, staying local and not unnecessarily going out.”

Brave New World Comics has since reopened, and is following health and safety guidelines put forth by Los Angeles County. They are continuing to accept donations for the book truck as well.

“Everybody’s responded, and how they’ve donated and come in over the last two months, it’s been overwhelmingly awesome,” Liegl said.

To find out more information on the store’s hours or how to donate, check out their social media here.

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