Litte Free Library

 

Have you ever heard of the Little Free Library movement?  It's just very cool.  You build a small box with a window.  Can be something as small as a microwave oven or as large as a repurposed telephone booth.  You put it on a post in front of your house, fill it with books and invite people to come and read them.   The idea is to share reading.  People passing by are encouraged by the sign on your little library, to take a book.  It's free.  It can be returned...or not.  It can be kept forever...or not.  It can be replaced with something else....or not.  The idea is to pass it on.  Pass on books.  Pass on the love of reading.  Pass on the IDEA of reading.   Pass it on to whoever is walking by.  How cool is that????

The Little Free Library movement is quite large, world wide and tucked into hamlets and big cities.  My daughter and I fell hook, line and sinker for the idea.  But I live in the country where there isn't much in the way of foot traffic...except in summer when renters are around.  But my daughter and her family live in a perfect place.  They are close to the center of their town, close to a school, in a walking neighborhood.  It's a perfect place for a Little Free Library and she was in love with the idea.
So, for her Christmas gift we had the good luck of knowing someone who offered to build this little house.

It's bigger than the microwave ( but smaller than the phone booth), made entirely of recycled materials, which is a huge part of the Little Free Library philosophy.  I mean, you're recycling books, right?  So use recycled materials, get creative and build a weather proof box!   This one has a window recycled from an old house, shingles, siding from construction jobs.  He put two shelves in it, the window door has a spring loaded hinge so it will shut on its own.  It is weatherproof. 

I painted it using outdoor paint I had at home, just to unify the look.  But I imagine the girls doing a more decorative job on the back of it.  My daughter and SIL have the spot in the yard where it will live picked out, and a box of books already pulled from their stash to stock it with!  I was a little disappointed in that....I, too, have a box of books for them!  I want to play, too!!