Our friend Cathy Stewart, who may be the world’s most thoughtful human being, stopped by to say hello today and she dropped off a book for our almost finished Free Little Library, it is called “How To Be An Explorer Of The World“, and it is a much loved book for children that presents 50 ways to understand the world and explore creativity, art and science.

The online reviews for the book are quite amazing, and I can’t think of a better first book for the library. Online, parents say the book takes kids right off of Facebook and into obsessive reading.

Cathy gave it to us and we were touched and pleased by this gift. We have stacks of books to put in the library – no need to send any, thanks – and Cathy’s was the perfect start. The Little Free Library program is a grass roots book sharing community of more than 40,000 people spread across the country.

It was started in 2008 by a Wisconsin man who wanted to honor his late mother, a librarian. People build, buy or commission their own small free libraries and put them out in front of the house on a sturdy pole. The libraries are seeded with free books from the builders and the idea is for people to take a book and return a book.

It sometimes takes awhile for people to catch on – there is only one other in our town here that we know of, more in nearby Vermont.

Our friend Jay Bridge, an engineer and carpenter and sheep farmer build us this beautiful little library, we painted it ourselves.  Jay is coming on Monday to put a poke in the ground and we hope to have it up and running by Tuesday and Wednesday. We have a big pile of books to put in it.

This is a grass-roots community sharing  movement, it seems a beautiful thing to us and we are happy to join. You can check out the program at littlefreelibrary.org.