I came across my first Little Free Library® on a walk with my mother during a vacation to Florida a few years ago. From a distance, I thought it might be a bird house, but as I got closer and realized how big it was, I saw that it was holding books. My mom opened the latch and reached inside and started looking at all the books they had. “Are you allowed to do that?” I demanded “What if someone sees you?” She looked at me and laughed. “It says right here, they’re free.” A free book? I couldn’t believe it. But as I got closer and inspected the “Take a book, Leave a book” sign on the shed, I realized she was right. It’s was a free library — FREE!
I peered inside the box with her and to my surprise, I didn’t recognize many of the book titles, but there was one that caught my eye.
“See anything you want?” My mother asked.
“Well there is one book, but I don’t know if I should take it,” I replied.
“Take it,” she urged, “it’s free!”
I grabbed the book and hid it in the crook of my arm, feeling like I got away with a crime. I was hooked. As time went on, my mom and I went on more walks together on our vacations in Florida and passed other little free libraries, always checking to see what they had. The more libraries I searched, the more I realized what a wide variety of options there were, for readers of any age.
After a while I became so invested, that I decided to Google it, because why not, maybe there were more for me to find or maybe there were some at home in West Virginia that I could go investigate. I couldn’t believe what I found. Not only were there more little free libraries I had yet to discover in the area where we were vacationing, but there were some in West Virginia that I could go search for as well. I looked all over their website, soaking up knowledge about little free libraries like a sponge, finding pictures of Little Free Libraries® from all over the world on their Instagram page, all the while hoping one day I could have a Little Free Library® of my own.
The Little Free Library® is a non-profit organization that inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges around the world. With the first library built in 2009, in just nine years they’ve reached an incredible milestone. Their 75,000th Little Free Library was established in Jenks, Oklahoma, at Jenks Elementary School on August 30, 2018. While the organization has now registered 75,000 Little Free Libraries®, they are continuing to urge non-chartered Little Free Libraries to register and become a part of the neighborhood as well.
In this tech forward world, it warms my heart to see such a large community around books and literacy, making books more available to everyone and creating relationships between neighbors. If you see a Little Free Library®, take a peek inside, or take a look on their Instagram to see the thousands of Little Free Libraries® from around the world. It’s truly magical to see this community centered around the love of books.
For more information on Little Free Library®, or to find a Little Free Library® near you, please visit their website littlefreelibrary.org Image five credit to @andrealr.84 on Instagram