Big Bad Wolf Book Sale returns to Cebu

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

GUIDED by its mission to make books accessible and promote English literacy, especially among children from low-income communities, the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale returns to Cebu from July 25 to Aug. 4, 2025, at GMall in Cebu City. 

BOOKS FOR A BETTER FUTURE Big Bad Wolf Book Sale co-founder Jacqueline Ng (center) turns over a symbolic donation of 2,000 books to the Sisters of Mary School Boystown and Girlstown during a press conference on July 15 in Cebu City. PHOTO BY KAISER JAN FUENTES

This year’s run features over 2 million discounted titles and a donation of 2,000 books to the Sisters of Mary School Boystown and Girlstown in Minglanilla.

Big Bad Wolf co-founder Jacqueline Ng announced the donation during a press conference on July 15, noting that each of the two campuses received 1,000 books to help support the education of their students.

Sister Anne Villaflor, school-in-charge of the Boystown campus, said in an interview that the donation will ease their financial burden, allowing funds originally intended for books to be redirected to other operational needs. 

The Minglanilla schools currently serve 1,872 high school boys and at least 2,300 girls from underprivileged backgrounds. 

She added that they also operate similar campuses in Cavite.

Ng said the organization started in 2009 as a small bookstore but remained rooted in the same advocacy, which is to increase readership and provide children from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to learn and dream through books.

“We don’t believe that books should remain a luxury item,” she said.

Ng emphasized the long-term impact of providing books to children, especially those who might otherwise lack access to educational resources. 

She said a book can boost a child’s confidence, encouraging them to ask questions, discover their interests, and even develop leadership skills as they grow.

Since its founding, the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale has expanded to 17 countries and visited 55 cities. 

The event was first held in Cebu in 2018 and the city has since become a regular stop, except during the pandemic years.

Book selections are largely sourced from BookXcess, a Malaysian bookstore specializing in excess or remaindered titles from international publishers. 

The sale is known for offering up to 95 percent off on a wide range of genres, including fiction, children’s literature, cookbooks, self-help and business books.

To ensure relevance and appeal for each location, the team curates selections using extensive sales data, including past performance by city and genre. 

Ng said their buyers study which titles performed well in previous years and use those insights when planning upcoming sales.

The organization also continues to donate books in every country it visits, focusing on children and communities with limited access to reading materials. 

In the Philippines, past beneficiaries have included public schools, libraries and non-profit organizations.

“We are not a very profit-oriented company,” Ng said. “We just try not to bankrupt ourselves along the way so that we can continue to bring Big Bad Wolf to as many countries as we can.”

Despite being a commercial entity without external funding, Big Bad Wolf maintains its strong social mission, aiming to make reading not just more affordable, but more transformative for all.