Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The Newest Little Free Library in Kansas City!

Many thanks to Alpha-Bits and the Little Free Library for sending us a library for our own neighborhood! We are really excited to be working with them to encourage literacy!

Whoohoo!! After several months of coordinating and planning, I'm happy to announce that our Little Free Library is officially installed!!
In March, I wrote about the importance of encouraging literacy among children and in our neighborhoods. I also included a fun way to encourage a love of reading and letters by using Alpha-Bits cereal. Two months later, Alpha-Bits is still the favorite cereal at our house, and we are asked repeatedly, all day long, for "ABC cereal!" I love it!

Alpha-Bits and the Little Free Library approached me about installing a library where we live back in January. I jumped at the chance to do that! Reading is so important to our family, and I'd love to see more people spending time with their nose in a book. Our church graciously allowed us to use part of their parking lot to host it, and the head deacon donated his time to get it installed. This has truly been a group project, and I'm so grateful to everyone who has helped bring it to the neighborhood. And now I'm excited to finally be able to give you all of the details so that you can visit our library yourself!
The Little Free Library is a free-standing structure that looks like an over-sized birdhouse. There are estimated to be between 10,000-12,000 libraries across the nation, and they can be found in front yards, parks, or in our case, the church parking lot! Every library can be customized to fit the preferences of the individual who is sponsoring it. Since ours is a joint partnership, ours came already decorated with Super WHY! characters from the popular PBS show and Alpha-Bit cereal letters. So pretty much our library has one of my kids' favorite TV shows AND their favorite cereal on it. It can't get any better than that!

Every Little Free Library is open to the public. You don't need a library card, there is no "check-out" procedure, and no borrowing fines. It operates on a "need a penny, take a penny, have a penny, leave a penny" principle. Stop by anytime, take a book or two that look interesting, and drop off a book or two that you are finished with. The selection constantly changes!
So where can you find our Little Free Library? Ours is in the Blue Ridge Bible Church parking lot. We had it installed right under a light for safety reasons. Just pull into the parking lot and browse through the books! Not in the metro Kansas City area? Look up your area on the Little Free Library website and see what is close to you. I think it would make a fun afternoon adventure to hunt for several of them with the kids!

We were given 10 books to get our library started, and I've noticed that people in the neighborhood are already borrowing and adding to the selection. That means it's working exactly as it's supposed to: encouraging literacy and making books accessible to everyone.

On one of my library checks, I found this book inside. I thought it perfectly describes the whole project:
Are you planning to visit our new Little Free Library or find one close to where you live? Leave me a comment with what you hope to find (or have already found!) inside!

Many thanks to Alpha-Bits and the Little Free Library organization for sending us a library for our neighborhood! This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

8 comments:

  1. What an awesome idea. I have not seen these but will be looking for them. I agree that TV and video games occupy to much of our children's time. I always give my children books for their birthdays and Christmas. I always thought a book was the most valuable gift you could give another.

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  2. Good for you!!!! I had gotten an email from them but they did not want one in my area after all. I have another blogger friend, Val, from Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids who put one up, too!!! So exciting and such a great thing. Way to go. So excited for you and all the kids that will benefit from it!!!!

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  3. Oh, how I love this concept! I really need to look into getting something like that around here.

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  4. Such a terrific idea. Love that the location is in your church's parking lot. Neat teamwork!

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  5. What a great idea! This is perfect for the little ones and a great alternative to buying new books all the time.

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  6. This is so awesome!! And we are in Kansas City! :)

    I had never heard of the Little Free Library until I happened to see a picture of one about a month ago, I can't even remember where I saw it? But I LOVE the idea. How do you go about getting one? I'd LOVE to set one up in my neighborhood!

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  7. How exciting there are two in New Zealand!

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  8. I LOVED The Berenstain Bears books when I was a kid! So glad your library is finally here and operational. :)

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