Everything in life costs more these days, except for the Little Free Libraries that are taking off in Kanab and across the world. As of this month, the non-profit Little Free Library organization has equipped over 150,000 stewards tending their diverse library boxes worldwide. That equals a distribution of over 70 million books! What an accomplishment.
“Take a Book, Read a Book, Replace a Book for free” - what a great mantra for a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting literacy worldwide. Their mission and critical. Read. Learn. Progress, and make the world and yourself a little better.
How does it work?
Stewards, and that can be anyone (including you), create a library box posted outside their home or business. Anyone may take a book from the box – neighbors, friends, passerby, travelers – the books are always there and always free. If you take a book, please leave a book but that is not a strict rule since the Little Free Library system continuously assists their stewards in gaining new book donations for children, books discussing issues of diversity, histories, and mysteries - and on it goes. Think of it like the old Stone Soup fable, where someone contributes one small item and soon the wealth grows as it is shared. That is the potential of the little boxes.
Why so important?
Here are a few of the facts the Little Free Library Organization shares. Children growing up in homes without books are on average three years behind kids with book-friendly homes. More than 36 million adults in the U.S. cannot read or write above a third-grade level. Two out of three children growing up in poverty have no books of their own.
Kanab is not being left behind in the growth of Little Free Library boxes. The latest Little Free Library Box Charter# 148021 sits proudly outside our Savage Point B&B at 53 South 200 East, at the junction of the dirt service road to the Kanab Center. Thanks go to our great Kanab High School Shop teacher, Jeremy Button, for building our colorful little box. Just around the corner is another Little Free Library box sponsored by the local Rotary Club, waiting for you in the parking lot to the Visitor Center. Several other boxes are already in the Ranchos, one close to the soon-to-be new elementary school.
To find other Little Free Libraries near you, or while you are traveling, go to https://littlefreelibrary.org/map/ and enjoy! What a way to care and share!
Note: Our box at Savage Point needs children’s books. If you have anything to share, please drop it by and thanks to all you book lovers.
