An essay I wrote about my Little Free Library is going to be published in an upcoming anthology of thoughts and recollections. I believe it will be coming out in the fall or early next year. Here is an excerpt from my essay:
Field Notes from Library 4965
A mother and her toddler were walking by my Little Free Library. The mom, pushing the stroller with an infant, slowed to look into the library, her little girl following behind. As the mother kept going, the little girl stopped in front of the library, too small to reach the library door by herself.
“I want a book,” she says. Her mother responds by calling her to catch up. The little girl, who was just over two, screamed “I want a book” and dissolved into tearful hysterics.
I thought to myself, “My work here is done.”
I come from a family of book lovers and my brother and I have expanded that love of reading to a love of collecting books as well. So when I first came across the idea of the Little Free Library, I knew I needed to add a library annex to the collections piling up inside my home. I wanted a little library in order to share my love of books with everyone. Not to mention that it would be nice to have a repository for already read titles.
Since I set my little library free in the neighborhood, I have been surprised by the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from my neighbors. From the day I put it up, I have been stopped by people I’ve never seen before to thank me for it. People often go out of their way to make a visit. There are even people who pull over while driving in order to take a peek.
But nothing has been as gratifying as the response from the kids in the neighborhood. For the first ten years that I lived here there was rarely a child to be seen, but in the last five years families have been having kids and families with kids have been moving in. The kids all love the Little Free Library. Nothing brings a smile to my face as the happy cry of a kid finding a book they want to read.
...
“I want a book,” she says. Her mother responds by calling her to catch up. The little girl, who was just over two, screamed “I want a book” and dissolved into tearful hysterics.
I thought to myself, “My work here is done.”
I come from a family of book lovers and my brother and I have expanded that love of reading to a love of collecting books as well. So when I first came across the idea of the Little Free Library, I knew I needed to add a library annex to the collections piling up inside my home. I wanted a little library in order to share my love of books with everyone. Not to mention that it would be nice to have a repository for already read titles.
Since I set my little library free in the neighborhood, I have been surprised by the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from my neighbors. From the day I put it up, I have been stopped by people I’ve never seen before to thank me for it. People often go out of their way to make a visit. There are even people who pull over while driving in order to take a peek.
But nothing has been as gratifying as the response from the kids in the neighborhood. For the first ten years that I lived here there was rarely a child to be seen, but in the last five years families have been having kids and families with kids have been moving in. The kids all love the Little Free Library. Nothing brings a smile to my face as the happy cry of a kid finding a book they want to read.
...
