Big Bad Wolf (BBW) Books might seem like just another traveling sale with viral hauls and long checkout lines but for co-founder Jacqueline Ng, it’s never just about the numbers. It’s about what happens after the crowds leave. About what a single book can mean to someone who’s never owned one.
“When I first arrived in the Philippines in 2017, I was stuck in traffic on the way to a meeting,” Jacqueline recalled.
“I looked out the window and saw an entire homeless family. That really opened my eyes. Where I come from, we don’t see extreme poverty like that. And it made me ask, how would a child grow up in that environment? What kind of exposure would they even have?”
That experience helped shape the deeper mission of BBW to make dignity and opportunity more accessible. Since then, the company’s heart has beat loudest through programs like Red Readerhood, which continues to channel books into the hands of those who need them most.
This year in Cebu, BBW is donating 1,000 books each to Sisters of Mary Boystown and Girlstown, two schools supporting underserved children, with the hope that these stories spark confidence and dreams.
“The purpose of us is to feed the hungry but also feed the soul,” Jacqueline said. “When you’re busy putting food on the table, books are a luxury.”
“There was one man who used to live in a cemetery,” she said. “He told me, ‘I’m worse than the dead. I can’t apply for a job because I don’t have an address.’ That moment stuck with me. You’re really stripped down of your human dignity until you’re taken out of that situation.”
It’s this synergy, books and shelter, words and worth, that defines the soul work of BBW.
How BBW raised a generation of readers
Long before BBW became a global movement, Jacqueline understood what it meant to grow up with less. “We weren’t poor, we had food, we had shelter but books were not part of our everyday life.”
She noticed instead how much she was missing out on. “I wasn’t the smartest student, but I paid attention in class. My classmates just knew more. I didn’t understand why — until I realized: it’s books. It’s exposure. It’s what you grow up around.”
That realization drives her work today. She often shares how just one book can change the course of a child’s life. She paints the picture of a five-year-old in a low-income family who’s handed a book about planets. At dinner, the child talks about what he learned — surprising the whole family. That moment of recognition, Jacqueline said, could be the first time he’s ever felt truly smart.
“That one book can make him say, ‘I’m clever.’ And that changes everything. He’ll raise his hand in class. He’ll become an officer. He’ll start to believe in himself.”
In Cebu, Jacqueline recalled seeing a group of students getting off a bus. Curious, she asked their teacher where they came from. “They traveled nine hours from the outskirts, just to spend a few hours here before heading back again,” she said. “Some of them couldn’t afford a book each, so they pooled their money and shared one.”
She paused. “That’s what matters most.”
Today, she sees many of the children who once came to BBW with their parents now returning as teenagers, independent readers with their own tastes and favorite authors. “We’re raising a generation of readers,” she said. “We’re growing with them. And that’s a long-term kind of work.”
“Sometimes I give myself a little pat on the back — how lucky we are to secure these books, to bring them to different cities, to make them accessible.”