Steward Spotlight: Lisa Vergara, Storytime Crafts, Inc.
Raised in Needham, Massachusetts, Lisa Vergara has spent most of her career giving back to her community. Throughout her various roles, including Creative Art Director, kindergarten art teacher, and Friends of the Needham Public Library Board Member–to name a few,...
How to Turn an Old Wood Burning Stove into a Little Free Library
Busty Books #139777, named for its home on Busty Bank in Newcastle upon Tyne (not its contents), was installed by Rachel and Paul Pattinson to share their excess books and give back to their neighborhood— find it on the Little Free Library world map! This quaint and...
Steward Spotlight: Sarah Kooiman
Sarah Kooiman had wanted to start a Little Free Library for several years, but things finally started moving in that direction during the pandemic. “I was reading more than ever and struggling with one of the most significant depressive phases in my recent memory all...
Steward Spotlight: Meet Elsie the Mobile-Bookstore-Turned-Little-Free-Library
Melissa Rippy is the third owner of the mobile bookstore that she has turned into Elsie the Mobile Little Free Library charter #134624. Melissa spotted Elsie for sale online. There was so much interest in Elsie that Melissa immediately bought her sight unseen!...
Steward Spotlight: Aditi Jain
Aditi Jain went to the same school for 14 years, from kindergarten to graduation. Her school had a program called “Good Reading,” where at the start of every school year, each child was challenged to read a specific number of pages or books by the end of...
Steward Spotlight: Cate O’Toole
Cate O’Toole came home in March after a weekend away celebrating her birthday to find her Little Free Library reduced to ashes. Fortunately, a passerby had noticed the fire before it could spread and called the Fire Department. Cate’s home and surrounding...
Chris Whong: Building A Little Free Library in Brooklyn, NYC
Brooklyn resident, Chris Whong, wanted to bring character to his block and create a community space for his neighbors. After seeing Little Free Libraries in the surrounding neighborhood, he sought out to steward one of his own. “I figured I’d give it a...
Steward Spotlight: Jennifer Quattrucci
Second grade teacher Jennifer Quattrucci’s stewardship began with a book she shared with her students, Little Libraries, Big Heroes by Miranda Paul. The book is an inspiring story of how Little Free Library’s founder, Todd Bol, created the network of little libraries...
Steward Spotlight: Simiya Sudduth
Founders of Afrofuturistic Farm Collaborative Simiya Sudduth and Dali Chambers are stewarding Little Free Library #117214 in the Greater Ville neighborhood of North St. Louis, Missouri. Find this little library and many more on the Little Free Library world map!...
Steward Spotlight: Jemma Samala
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Jemma Samala decided that it was time: no matter what, she was going to start a Little Free Library book-sharing box. But things didn’t exactly go as she planned. She had a nice cabinet that she painted, filled with kids books and...
Steward Spotlight: Seraphin Niyonsenga Brings a Little Library to Rwanda
Seraphin Niyonsenga lived in Davis, California, in 2016 as a Fulbright Exchange Fellow. On his morning runs, he passed by Little Free Library book boxes and they caught his attention. He realized that the Little Free Library model could be an aswer to bridging the...
Steward Spotlight: Donna Bright on Working With an HOA to Start a Library
“I was scrolling through Facebook years ago when I first saw a Little Free Library. It put such a smile on my face that I knew I wanted to start one of my own someday,” says Donna Bright, steward of library #M107532 in Chino, California. (Find her library...
Steward Spotlight: Dra. Katia Padilla Bautista
Dra. Katia Padilla Bautista grew up in Morelia, a southern city in Mexico. She recalls her parents would only buy her a book if she got good grades. “Every time I earned a book, I remember reading it slowly because they only gave grades every 2 months!”...
Steward Spotlight: Olivia and Sophia Thornburg
“We think it is important that everyone has access to books and not everyone in our community has easy access to books,” say Olivia and Sophia Thornburg. For their Girl Scout Silver Award, they wanted to do something that would not only increase book...
Steward Spotlight: Pam Millington
Little Free Library #4095 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, doesn’t just have one steward…. it has twelve. Creating the library and maintaining it are a neighborhood effort. “Years ago I heard about little libraries and brought up the idea at our neighborhood...
Steward Spotlight: Mary and John Hill
John and Mary Hill enjoy doing things to benefit their community. That’s why a few years back, they founded a food pantry on the campus of Front Range Community College, where they both worked. Then in 2018, Mary was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and they...
Steward Spotlight: Tashay Green
Tashay Green runs a Chicago-based book-sharing program called “Books on the L,” so named for Chicago’s public transit system, the “L.” When the city issued a shelter-in-place order in early 2020, Tashay had to put a hold on things, but...
Steward Spotlight: Loida Casares
When Loida Casares heard a story about the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, placing book-sharing boxes in laundromats, she thought it was a genius idea. “I already had a Little Free Library of my own, outside my house, so I was already a library steward and...
Steward Spotlight: Autumn Stephen
“Starting a Little Free Library is an incredibly rewarding and satisfying experience,” says Autumn Stephens. She shares how she and her husband created ‘Library Day’ for their neighborhood in this Steward Spotlight blog post.
Steward Spotlight: Bob Wanzel
In 2019, Bob Wanzel, his wife Barb, and their Bible study group helped build a pocket park in their College Hill neighborhood in North St. Louis, Missouri. Then they added Little Free Library #84421 to the park, with a focus on sharing children’s books....
Why Sharing Diverse Books in Little Free Libraries Matters
This summer, readers are flooding Little Free Library book-sharing boxes with diverse books that amplify Black voices. Sarah Kamya, a New York high-school counselor and Little Free Library steward, is a champion of this movement. She began filling her local little...
Steward Spotlight: Rascona’s Rascals Daycare
Like many of us, Layla Rascona and her husband Anthony felt the toll of social distancing during COVID-19. “We felt super isolated. We spent more time at home and in our yard and I noticed a lot of new faces in other yards that I hadn’t met yet,”...