Little Free Library puts neighbors on same page

When I saw my first “Little Free Library,” I wanted nothing more than to be a kid again.

I yearned to go back to those days when to live was to read and to read was to live. What I would have given, as a child, to live in a neighborhood lined with birdhouse-like boxes filled with books for the taking. A place where stopping at a neighbor’s house meant swapping a book and even, with luck, a little book chat.

That’s what The Little Free Library movement, which originated in Wisconsin in 2009, has brought to some 40,000 curbsides and public spaces around the world.

And it has come to dozen or more locations in the Dayton area, including the home of Justin and Andrea Morter at 2630 Galewood St. in Kettering.

“We have seen a few other libraries around town, mostly in parks or on bike paths, so we decided it would be a cool thing to get involved with and to have something to give back to our neighborhood,” explained Justin, a graphic designer.

The boxes vary greatly in size and design and materials. Some look like dollhouses; others, miniature treehouses. They’re not just libraries; they’re art projects constructed out of everything from old tree trunks to phone booths to bread boxes. Yet they share one goal, according to the website littlefreelibrary.org: “to promote literacy and the love of reading” and “to build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across the generations.”

The Morters’ neighborhood has lots of kids, and Andrea wanted to be sure they all had something to read, whether or not their parents had time to take them to the library or the spare cash to buy books.

Justin works from home building websites and producing documentaries, and he enjoys the parade of visitors to his miniature library as people stop to browse for books or leave donations. “We’ve had so much more traffic than I ever thought,” he said.

On a recent Saturday, William Semons of Beavercreek stopped by with his 6-year-old daughter, Jillian, who has fallen in love with the little libraries. “The idea just intrigued her and caught her attention,” Semons said.

Jillian perused every book in the children’s section before selecting a book about mermaids.

The Morters’ son Nash, almost 2, is another regular patron. “When we are outside he knows there are books in there and makes us get one out, then he sits next to the library and waits for us to come back to read it to him,” Justin said.

Many moms find less time to read after their babies are born. For Andrea, it was just the opposite. “I didn’t want him to see me being on my phone all the time,” explained Andrea, an administrative assistant at the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “So I decided to read in the evenings instead of sitting on my phone.”

And she became a book lover, a joy she now shares with her neighbors. The couple has lived on Galewood Street for three years, but have met many of their neighbors for the first time since putting up the little library in June. (It was a family building project, with Andrea using a power tool for the first time.) Recently they added a dog hook so passersby can leash their dogs while book browsing.

“It’s a good way to meet your neighbors,” Justin said. “Tons of them stop to talk to us now and say hi.”

Donations can be left in the little library or in boxes on the covered front porch. No donation is wasted; if the book is a duplicate, it can be traded at the One Dollar Book Swap in downtown Dayton.

An interactive map on the Little Free Library shows you where you can find libraries near you. In Dayton you can find them at private residences but also public spaces such as universities, the McPherson Town Historic District and the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park.

The Little Free Library movement was born after Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, built a model of a one-room schoolhouse as a tribute to his mother, a teacher and a book lover. He filled it with books and put it on a post in his front yard with a FREE BOOKS sign.

If only they could have dreamed up the idea decades earlier, when I read and re-read books in between trips to the library.

Here’s another fantasy: When you see hordes of kids roaming the neighborhood on a summer night, they’re not playing Pokemon GO.

They’re looking for a Little Free Library.

Contact this columnist at maryjomccarty@gmail.com.

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