Promote Literacy: Design a Little Free Library

The great thing about writers is that it isn’t hard to convince us that literacy is vital to human survival. Heck some of us have books on our shelves that get right to the point of survival including How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse and The Alien Invasion Handbook. What can I say? I share my shelves with men and boys. We have books to help us in our writing and we have books for reading. We writers are voracious readers, we give books as gifts and we are constantly encouraging others to read. One way to do this is by building a Little Free Library.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this concept, Little Free Libraries are tiny free-standing structures, a lot like newspaper sales boxes. Books are left inside and would-be readers are free to look through them, pick one out and read it. Later they can return the book they finished and take another. You can build one based on your own design but you can also buy a kit here and then register it with the organization. Yes – a whole organization of book lovers!

Obviously there are some challenges to constructing a teeny, tiny library and that’s why Chronicle Books and Little Free Library are pairing up to hold a contest. The contest challenges would be designers to address some of these would-be issues. What issues? They include but are not limited to:

• How to weatherproof the library to keep the books safe.
• Creating a design that compliments the community the library serves.
• Ensuring that the books are highly visible.
• Making the books accessible to super short patrons (children) as well as tall patrons (adults). Properly storing and displaying books that have unique shapes.

Each entry is eligible for three different prizes including one chosen by the Little Free Library community and another chosen by the panel of judges. My favorite, because of the possibilities it holds, will be chosen by the Chronicle Books team and may be produced “large scale.” Oh, excitement! Imagine copies of your library all over, encouraging readers and spreading the love of books.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in doing, visit the Chronicle Books web page on the contest for more information. It includes an e-mail addy for questions. Me? As usual I have almost too many ideas to pick just one.

--SueBE

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.
She also teaches our class, Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults.  The next session begins December 5, 2016.

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Leave a Comment Little Free Library, Sue Bradford Edwards

Growing Readers, Little by Little Free Library

Dedicated to memory of Habitat volunteer, Tony Martin

For the last month or so, I’ve watched writer friend, Susan Rosson Spain, work on a Little Free Library. She’s artsy as well as a fine writer, so she’s painted books and birds and ivy on the basic structure, and now it’s really something special. Perhaps it’s the ivy that partly inspired this post today.

I love the Little Free Library, both in concept and application. What started in Wisconsin as a simple woodworking/book idea has blossomed into an international reading initiative. And really, it’s just a mini-lending library, on a stick.

It looks like an over-sized birdhouse, or maybe a child’s dollhouse. And it’s stocked with a variety of books, carefully chosen and freely provided. You’ll find these little libraries all over the country, in busy neighborhoods or at remote crossroads. It’s always open, always free-for-the-taking. Take a book, leave a book. Or don’t leave a book. That’s fine, too. Little Free Libraries have stewards who’ll check and make sure that things are running smoothly.

Of course, it’s way more than a lending library. It’s a literacy movement. The Little Free Libraries are growing readers from one end of the world to the other. So what about you, writer? Are you promoting literacy? Are you growing readers? Because we need to work on that literacy initiative ourselves.

Honestly, I don’t think there are too many writers that need that message. The fact is, writers are almost always voracious readers. We can’t help being enthusiastic about words and books and reading. Some (and I’m thinking of the mister here) might say we talk a little too much about words and books and reading.

You know what? I’ll keep at it. Because excitement about reading is contagious. That’s why I support my regular-sized library and my kids’ school libraries and literacy programs like First Book. That’s why I’m thrilled whenever I see another Little Free Library go up somewhere in my corner of the world—or any corner of the world! I know someone will walk by, maybe a mother with kids in tow, maybe a construction worker on his lunch break, maybe an elderly resident at an assisted living facility, and they’ll stop and say, “Wow. Free books.” They’ll open the door, scan the titles, and reach for a book that looks interesting.

It could be your book. It could be mine. But make it the best book possible, because we’re growing readers, word by word. And dang, y’all. That’s exciting!

~Cathy C. Hall

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6 comments Cathy C. Hall, First Book, literacy, Little Free Library, reading, Susan Rosson Spain