Book huts

The whimsical green box alight with dragonflies, butterflies, birds and flowers simply invites curiosity. It’s so darned cute. Birdhouse or fanciful lawn decor? Take a closer look. A sign on the front that says “Little Free Libraries” instructs you to “take a book or return a book.” As your book-loving heart skips a beat, open the box. Behold the books, all kinds of books - mysteries, thrillers, inspirational, how-to, children’s stories. Now go ahead, take one. It’s free.

“People take books, drop off books - it’s really fun,” says Barrie Wurzburg of the little green box, a self-serve library that’s her way of sharing her enthusiasm for reading and books with the 320-some residents of the Horseshoe Lake community in Crittenden County. “I’m a voracious reader,” she says. “I wanted to share my love of books with others and this seems like the best way to do it. I love my little library.”

Wurzburg’s box of books is a “little free library,” one of 29 freestanding boxes of books in Arkansas that are registered with the nonprofit Little Free Libraries organization (littlefreelibrary.org) in Hudson, Wis. You’ll find similar but distinct birdhouse-like little libraries in Fayetteville, Brinkley, Rogers, Blytheville, Mount Judea, North Little Rock and Siloam Springs.

They’re all part of the growing Little Free Libraries movement to promote literacy and a love of reading by providing people access to free books that they can keep, return, replace or pass on to others.

Little Free Libraries began in 2009 when Tony Bol of Hudson built a model of a one room schoolhouse, filled it with books and put up a sign saying “free books.” That first little library - a tribute to Bol’s mother, a former schoolteacher who loved books - was so well received that Bol found himself making more boxes and giving them away. Wurzburg heard about Bol’s efforts on National Public Radio in 2012 and was immediately inspired to build her library. Since she stationed the green box in front of her house at Horseshoe Lake, Wurzburg says, she estimates that 300 to 400 books have passed through it.

“It’s so easy. People can drive up in their cars, roll down the window and take a book,” she says. “They also walk to it from all over the neighborhood. Sometimes grandparents bring their grandchildren.”

A WORLD OF BOOKS

Little Free Libraries are popping up all over the world. When Bol’s idea morphed into a full-blown grassroots movement in 2010, the goal was to build 2,510 little libraries - one more library than Andrew Carnegie built in the United States at the end of the 19th century. By August 2012, that goal had been met and passed.

Today, there are more than 10,000 libraries, on every continent around the world, according to littlefreelibrary.org, all functioning on an honor system of take one, leave one.

The “stewards” of little libraries are typically people who have in common their lifelong love of reading. They come from all walks of life and professions. Wurzburg owns a clothing store in Memphis. Tony Canova of Fayetteville, who built a library for his wife as an anniversary gift, is an interior decorator. Elizabeth Mayfield-Hart, whose little library sits beside the sidewalk in front of her house on Orange Street in North Little Rock’s Argenta neighborhood, is a civil engineer with the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department.

For Mary Gay Shipley, hosting a library seems a natural progression for her as she moves into life after owning and operating That Little Bookstore in Blytheville, which she founded in 1976. Her little free library on the grounds of St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Blytheville was founded notlong after she sold the bookstore in 2013. “A friend took me by a little library in North Little Rock and said, ‘You’re going to love this.’ Of course, I did,” Shipley says. “They’re just fun. They’re cute and unexpected. And people love to share their books.”

Shipley says her little library at Blytheville has proved so popular (based on the regular shifts in the box’s contents) that the Rotary Club of Blytheville (of which she’s assistant governor) hopes to install at least 35 libraries throughout the county.

BUILD IT AND THEY’LL READ

So far, however, Fayetteville appears to hold the record for the most little libraries, with 12 listed on the Little Free Libraries map (inclusion is simply a matter of making a one-time $34.95 donation to the organization). Among those is the box Tony Canova built for his wife, Kimberly, in January as a gift for their 19th wedding anniversary.

“After 19 years, you kind of rack your brain about what to do for a gift,” Canova says. “I thought this was perfect. We both love to read and have a ton of books.” The little library also is a great way to encourage children to read. “In this day and age of Kindles and iPads, very seldom do you see a kid sitting down with an actual book. So we thought it would be a cool idea to make them available.” Canova’s box usually contains a number of Dr. Seuss storybooks for children as well as novels by his favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut, and a selection from his wife’s favorite genre, Southern literature.

Like others who have built libraries, Canova says success is hard to quantify, but he knows it’s being used because the books his family puts in the box disappear and others take their place.

Comic books are hot items at Mayfield-Hart’s little yellow library in North Little Rock. “I’m at work during the day, but my husband sees kids stopping at the library after they get off the school bus.”

She and other owners say people treat the libraries with respect and, so far, none of the boxes has been vandalized. People leave books inside as well as the occasional DVD, but they haven’t left trash or anything inappropriate.

As for book theft, that’s not possible with a little library. “How can you steal a free book?” says Debra Wood of Laman Library in North Little Rock, which joined in the Little Free Library movement a year ago. Laman Library has boxes at the dog park in Burns Park, in front of the City Services Building on Main Street and across from the Lakewood Property Owners Association office on Lakeshore Drive. The library stocks the boxes with books donated by patrons, Wood says. On a recent week, the Lakewood box contained a mix of fiction and nonfiction by former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sue Grafton, Nora Roberts and Scott Turow.

Wood says the little libraries complement the big library’s other services by providing people - who might not be inclined to visit the main library or downtown branch - an alternate way to get books. Many people like that there’s no need for a library card or worry about late fees. “We’d like to put little libraries all over the city,” she says.

Wurzburg says her little library complements and supplements the Horseshoe Lake local library, which is open only on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. She feels a zing of book-lover delight whenever she sees someone get a book from her box or finds a thank you note from a borrower.

“I love the community it has created,” Wurzburg says. “When I visit the local store, people always run up to me and say they appreciate the library. I’ve met so many people because of my little library. And I just love that other people love reading.”