Author Charissa Bates Turns Cancer Battle Into Community Healing Through Little Free Library

Charissa Bates

Hogwarts Little Free Library

Cancer survivor and author Charissa Bates turned her healing journey into hope by building a Little Free Library and writing joyful, resilient stories.

Books were healing for me, and they’re healing for kids,” Bates says. “Building a Little Free Library was a way to turn something painful into something generous and something that keeps giving.”

— Charissa Bates

WOODBURY, MN, UNITED STATES, February 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- After surviving cancer, children’s author and former school social worker Charissa Bates transformed her journey into a mission of hope, literacy, and joy building a Little Free Library to give back to young readers and families in her community.

Bates, whose career spans years as a school social worker and children’s mental health therapist, has long centered her work on supporting children’s emotional well-being and learning. Following her cancer diagnosis in 2019, she found renewed purpose in storytelling and access to books—tools she had spent her life using to help children heal.

June 5, 2019, marked Bates’ cancer anniversary and the moment she decided to begin writing children’s books. Just days later, on June 11, 2019, she established a new Little Free Library after her original Batcave/Wayne Manor-themed library was damaged. The replacement, affectionately known as the Hogwarts Little Free Library, quickly became a neighborhood beacon for imagination, resilience, and connection.

Bates is the author of the award-winning children’s books, The Traveling Book and We Find Joy: Cancer Messed with the Wrong Family, stories that reflect her belief that joy can exist even in the hardest chapters of life. Her writing draws inspiration from her children, Little Free Libraries, gardening, neuroscience, and family which are everyday sources of wonder that ground her work in authenticity and hope.

Now represented by Kristen Terrette of Martin Literacy & Management, Bates currently has a new book out on submission and dreams of the right publisher discovering her work and sharing it with even more families.

“Books were healing for me, and they’re healing for kids,” Bates says. “Building a Little Free Library was a way to turn something painful into something generous and something that keeps giving.”

Through her stories and her library, Bates continues to champion literacy, emotional resilience, and the power of small acts to create meaningful change.

About Charissa Bates
Charissa Bates is a Triple Negative Breast Cancer survivor at the age of 33. She has three beautiful children,
is a former school social worker and children’s mental health therapist, and the author of The Traveling Book and We Find Joy: Cancer Messed with the Wrong Family. Her work focuses on joy, resilience, and emotional wellness for children and families. Learn more on her website.

To set up an interview, reading, signing, or for information regarding Bates, please contact info@expoundpublicity.com.

About Expound Publicity:
Founded by award-winning, bestselling author and seasoned marketer Alysson Bourque, Expound Publicity is a full-service book PR and marketing agency specializing in custom publicity campaigns for authors and thought leaders. Learn more at expoundpublicity.com.

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