Plenty of street libraries in the local area – ours is the only one (so far) dedicated to young readers. Target 4 – 14 years.
We love books at our house and have a young child who reads obsessively. This project originated as a way to meet our household demand for books, whilst encouraging a sharing philosophy.
It is always a fantastic event for our child when new (to us) books appear in the library! – and the library helps us to share this joy with other kids by making books more freely available.
This is the second iteration of our street library – the first had more picture books but we found it slow to “move stock” [we have theories why]. Based on our market insights, and a hunch, we think there is more demand for stocking chapter books, junior fiction, middle grade, and young adult (YA).
Ideally, we want to see more kids visiting and choosing their own book/s. We would also love to see older kids who are ready to pass on their well-loved books to younger kids – and so make room for other books in their life. You may sometimes see us, sitting reading, on the front porch.
When you have a kid who reads obsessively, you sometimes find, with much disappointment, that the local council libraries don’t have all the books in the world. In addition to offering books free to take, I am also considering lending some out-of-print or other hard to find book gems, such as Dory Fantasmagory or The Freak Street Series by Knife and Packer.
