[COLD OPEN] Through Read In Color, we are really trying to expose all of us to these different voices. It's important for readers to see their reflection in those books. So I love to think of a young Jewish reader, going to a Little Free Library and being able to pull out a book, they're like, Oh, this looks like my family! Mirrors and windows, both reflecting back ourselves, and also getting a look into a culture that's different from our own. Both of those are really really important.
[MUSIC, INTRO] This is The Book of Life, a show about Jewish kidlit, mostly. I'm Heidi Rabinowitz. Have you ever walked down the street and come across a Little Free Library? You know, those boxes of up-for-grabs books in people's front yards. Today, we've got an interview with Margret Aldrich, Director of Communications at the Little Free Library organization. We'll find out how this phenomenon got started, and we'll learn about how Jewish books are being included in their programming. And as someone who receives a lot of Jewish book donations, many of which duplicate titles I already have, I can tell you from personal experience that Little Free Libraries are a wonderful way to get those books off my own shelf, and share them with the world. Now, let's hear from Margret.
Margret, what are Little Free Libraries?
Little Free Libraries are community book sharing boxes. So at a Little Free Library you can take a book home with you or you can leave a book for someone else to find. And it's really a wonderful community resource. They're also pretty adorable; you might see a Little Free Library in your neighborhood and wonder what it is. Often it looks like a big birdhouse on a stick. If you open the door on that Little Free Library you'll find books inside.
And how did Little Free Libraries become a movement? We see them everywhere. How did this get started?
Well, the first Little Free Library was built by a man named Todd Bol in Hudson, Wisconsin back in 2009. So Todd's mother had passed away and she was an educator. She was a lifelong reader she loved books and Todd was thinking about how he could honor his mother's memory. So, being an entrepreneurial spirit and a really creative person, Todd built this wooden one room schoolhouse and filled it with books, put it in his front yard, and when he saw how his neighbors reacted to it, you know he thought there might be a spark of a good idea there. So people would come and share books, they would stop and have conversations, they would linger they would, you know, really create community. So he wanted to share this idea with the rest of the world. He got together with a man named Rick Brooks, and they refined the idea, they built more Little Free Libraries and gave them away, and really tested them out, both in Minneapolis, and in Madison, Wisconsin, and they saw the idea just really take off. You know, people who would visit Minneapolis would say, that's an amazing idea, I'm going to make one and put it up in my neighborhood. And really through word of mouth, the Little Free Library idea started to spread. There was some great media around it. And even though a Little Free Library is this very analog thing, you know, it's literally a wooden box that you put books in, social media and the internet really helped spread the word as well. So from that one Little Free Library in Wisconsin in 2009, there are now more than 100,000 Little Free Libraries around the world.
Wow!
And those are in all 50 states they're in 110 countries, and they're even on all seven continents, because last year, someone started one at the South Pole.
So the scientists and the penguins have something to read!
You're exactly right, and he said that books that have lots of colorful pictures are very popular because at the South Pole it's white for miles.
Right! So they just need to feast their eyes on some color.
That's right.
Wow, I never thought of that. So, it spread by word of mouth, it was just sort of a person to person thing, but at this point it's actually an official organization.
That's right. So in 2012, the Little Free Library nonprofit organization became official, and through the Little Free Library nonprofit, we really work with not only the stewards, who are the people who have Little Free Libraries,but we also work with communities to establish Little Free Libraries where they're needed most, where there's not as much access to books. So, the two pronged mission of Little Free Library is to increase book access, and also to build community, and a Little Free Library can do that in some pretty special ways for being such a small and unassuming item.
Well, those missions seem very much in line with the mission of a public library. So, what is the niche that's being filled by Little Free Libraries that the public library can't do on its own? Or is there any competition between the two, or how do they work together?
Yeah, we've seen that they are very complimentary. You know I always kind of joke that saying that a Little Free Library competes with a public library, it's like saying a little kid's lemonade stand competes with, you know, your grocery store, because a public library is so essential to a community, has so many services, and librarians at public libraries are really innovative people, and we've been lucky to work with hundreds of public libraries all across the country who use Little Free Libraries as kind of a supplementary outreach tool. So, a public library might put Little Free Libraries out farther into the community where they can reach more patrons. We even know of a public library in Florida who places Little Free Libraries at the beach, and so they share beach reads, but they also put in information about the public library. And there's also a lot of research showing that there's a whole group of kids and adults who just don't yet use the public library. That's just not part of their family routine, it's not part of their family culture. And so, a Little Free Library can almost be that gateway to get to the public library, because a Little Free Library, you'll find it on your walk home from the school bus, you'll find it on your walk home from work; it's a way that is very unintimidating to find book access,
You've actually written a book about Little Free Libraries. So tell us about your book and tell us something interesting that you've learned in the research process, maybe things that surprised you or just something really cool that you found out.
Well, my background is in publishing, and then I was working also as a magazine editor, and writing about a lot of community and arts projects, and that's where I first came across the Little Free Library organization, probably way back in 2011. So I was asked to write a book about this, and started to get to know both the organization and some of the stewards around the world. It was a really fascinating universe to dive into. One of the stories that really surprised me was from a man who started the first Little Free Library in South Korea. I was talking with him about, how did you find out about this, how did you decide to start one? And it was really pure dumb luck, and the internet. He randomly googled the word "library," and then fell down the internet rabbit hole as many of us do. And he found himself at Little Free Library's website. And when you're on the website there's a world map so you can search to see if there's a library near you. And he searched and saw that there was no Little Free Library in South Korea. So he thought, Well, I think I can do that. And he said it was a little intimidating because in his community, neighbors didn't talk to each other, and he really wondered how people would react to this, if anybody would ever use it, or if it would just sit there. And so he put up his Little Free Library. And at first, no one did use it, and then he really had to start talking to his neighbors, and let them know what it is and that they were welcome to use it and take books, and then it became such a success that he started a second Little Free Library in that same community.
That's awesome. You wrote the book before you worked for Little Free Libraries, right?
That's right, that's right. So the book came out in 2015, and I'd gotten to know the founder very well during the research process. And so about a year later he asked me to come join the organization. And at first I thought, well I'm enjoying my freelance writing life and, you know, maybe I could do a year, see how it goes and five years later and I'm still loving the Little Free Library organization. I'm the Director of Communications, so I get to tell the story of Little Free Library, talk with our stewards about what they're doing, work with a lot of our media partners and publishing partners. So a really exciting job, something different every day.
Can anyone have a Little Free Library? Do they just put a box in their front yard? How do people get started?
Yeah, there are a couple different ways to get started, and something that I love about Little Free Libraries is that they're achievable. This is something that anybody can do. So one way you can do it, if you're handy and creative, is you can build your own Little Free Library. And we've seen people create Little Free Libraries that look like rocket ships, and Doctor Who's TARDIS, and huge mansions, and little replicas of the house behind it. So people get really creative with their Little Free Libraries. If you build your own, we'd love it if you'd register it with the Little Free Library organization. Then you can add it to the map and you receive all the steward benefits that Little Free Library offers. Another way you can do it is if you're not handy, you can purchase a Little Free Library from the organization, or if you're kind of handy, this is what I did, I bought the kit, which made me feel like I was kind of building something. You know, I had to screw some things together, but it's definitely something that anybody can do.
Kind of the IKEA version.
Exactly right. Exactly right.
And what are the steward benefits?
So when you're a steward, one: you have access to our staff, we answer a lot of questions, we offer a lot of advice. We do lots of book giveaways for our stewards. And when we are presented with opportunities from our publishing friends, from other organizations who want to help, we can pass those along to our stewards as well. So one example is the publisher Celadon does monthly shipments to a section of Little Free Library stewards who want to receive advance copies of new books. So I think that that's one of the cool benefits, that's something that I really like as a reader and as a book lover. I think that's cool to get those advance books.
Yes, definitely. So Little Free Library runs a number of special programs and the one that I particularly want to talk to you about is Read in Color. So tell us about the Read in Color program.
Yes. Read in Color is a program to bring thousands of diverse books to the Little Free Library network. So through Read in Color we are launching in different cities across the country, to, one: established Little Free Libraries in underserved areas, and two: provide diverse books to those libraries, and to stewards in that area. So the idea is to amplify BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other marginalized voices through books, and also really to expose readers to those voices to help grow understanding, to help grow equity, to help grow inclusion. We know that we are a little organization, and we have little Little Free Libraries, but we wanted to do something that we hope in our small way can contribute to that change.
On your website, you have a Read in Color section where there are recommended reading lists for various diverse communities, so books about the Black community, about the Asian community, about the LGBT community and so on. And when I first encountered this section, I saw that it didn't include Jewish titles, and I wrote to you and suggested that I would be happy to name some Jewish titles that you might be able to include, and I was so thrilled when you said yes. So, I'm wondering, had you been thinking about adding Jewish books to the mix, before we spoke?
Yes, but I was so glad that you reached out, and we're so happy that you're on our Diverse Books Advisory Group now; that is a big help to our organization. So when we launched Read in Color, we launched with... the categories were Anti-racism, Black, Asian American, Indigenous, LGBTQ, Muslim, and Latino, so we had those seven initial categories with the thought that ideally twice a year we'd be adding new categories, partly because, as I mentioned we are a small staff and the launch of Read in Color was a big undertaking. So we didn't want to rush through too quickly. So, on the list to come in 2021, we're adding a category on Disability so that's available now, and the next one is a Jewish category. So I was really happy when you reached out, because it's not only a huge help to us that you're we're willing to be on that advisory group, but it also reinforced that people cared about this, you know that they wanted to see these books included on the list, so I really appreciate that.
I really appreciate the welcome! In the diversity conversation that happens in the children's literature community, Jewish books are sometimes left out of that conversation. Why do you feel it's important that Jewish books be included in your diverse lineup?
Through Read in Color, we are really trying to expose all of us to these different voices, and that's very important. The other side of that is that it's important for readers to see their reflection in those books. So I love to think of a young Jewish reader going to a Little Free Library and being able to pull out a book, they're like, Oh, this looks like my family, you know, this is what we do. So I think that that mirrors and windows, both reflecting back ourselves, and also getting a look into a culture or a group that's different from our own, both of those are really, really important. So I'm excited to add this list.
Tell us a little bit about the other special programs that Little Free Library runs.
Yeah, one of our core programs, is called the Impact Library program. Folks can apply to receive a Little Free Library and books at no cost. So this really goes with our mission to advance book access in all kinds of communities. We work with urban, rural, suburban, and Native American communities with this program to really boost that book access, where folks live. That's one of the favorite parts of my job is that I get to help choose those recipients who apply through the Impact Library program, and this year we're able to increase the number that we grant by a bit every month. Our goal is to not have to turn anybody away but we still have a ways to go to do that.
I see you also have an Action Book Club, what is that?
Yes, this is something that you don't have to have a Little Free Library to do. The Action Book Club encourages reading groups to get together, read a book, talk about it, but then also take it a step further and go out and do something positive in your community. A lot of the book clubs I've been part of, there's been a lot of wine drinking. Together we talk about the book. Maybe instead of that or in addition to that, you come up with a community service project that you can all do together.
That's wonderful! And then the last thing on the list on your website for your special projects is the Todd H. Bol Awards. What are those awards?
Yeah, so Todd H. Bol, you know I mentioned him, that he was our founder. He sadly passed away in 2018 quite suddenly from pancreatic cancer. The Little Free Library network really meant the world to him. He was so proud of all the people around the world who were really doing something to make where they live a better place, and doing things to connect more closely with their neighbors. So the Todd H. Bol Awards honor Todd, and through them we honor Little Free Library stewards who are really doing great work. This year it was interesting to see the variety of impact that these different folks had had. There was a man who brought a Little Free Library to his community in Rwanda, there was a couple who had visited thousands of Little Free Libraries and donated books. The steward universe is a really pretty amazing group of people.
Do you have a Little Free Library of your own?
Oh that's a good question. I actually recently moved, and my realtor asked me, Would you mind leaving the Little Free Library? We moved to just across town; I live in Minneapolis. So my original Little Free Library is still functional but it has a different steward now. And so at our new house, we need to get our own Little Free Library. So we're in between Little Free Libraries right now which feels kind of weird to me.
That's interesting! It was actually a selling point as you sold your house?
It was, and we've heard that anecdotally from realtors that having a Little Free Library on the block helps them sell a house, because it makes it feel like a friendlier place.
That's wonderful. So, what is your favorite thing about being a Little Free Library steward?
Oh, meeting more neighbors. It is not a joke that when you put up a Little Free Library you will meet more neighbors. When we put ours up, we were literally just getting it put into the ground, the final touches, and we had neighbors from down the street crossing over to our sidewalk to check out what it was and how they could help. And we had never talked to these neighbors before, they kind of kept to themselves. And so it was just a wonderful signpost of how a Little Free Library really can help build community.
Excellent. I do not have a Little Free Library. I live in an apartment so I don't have a place to put one, but I know a Girl Scout who is always looking for books for her Little Free Library project. And this is wonderful for me as a librarian who receives a lot of donations and duplicate books that I do not need to add to my library collection. It's a great outlet for, you know, what to do with all of those books.
That's wonderful. I'm sure you would be a great Little Free Library contributor, that's for sure.
I do contribute a large number of books. It's Tikkun Olam Time. And this is your chance for a little bit of activism. Now, your whole job is activism. You've already given us quite a number of Tikkun Olam ideas, but do you have any other action that you would like to invite listeners to take to help repair the world?
This is such a great question. Something that we would love for your listeners to do is to sign our Read in Color pledge if they support sharing diverse books. So you can find the Read in Color pledge on our website if you go to the Read in Color spot under Programs. What we're hoping is just to show the support and that people care, that people want to see diverse books, that people want to read diverse books, that people want to share diverse books with their kids and their grandkids. So we would love it if you go on there and sign the pledge too. You can find that at Littlefreelibrary.org/read-in-color.
Is there anything else that you'd like to talk about that I haven't thought to ask you?
Well, the other little exciting bit of news is that you can keep an eye out for our brand new Little Free Library mobile app. Through that you'll be able to find Little Free Libraries on your phone, wherever you are. So I'm excited to use that when I travel because I love to find Little Free Library, whatever state I'm in, or even whatever country I'm in.
That's wonderful. Margret Aldrich, thank you so much for speaking with me.
Heidi, thank you. It's been such a pleasure.
[MUSIC, TEASER] This is Gavriel Savit, author of The Way Back. I'll be joining you soon on The Book of Life podcast and I would like to dedicate my episode to the denizens of the Fairview Cemetery in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
[MUSIC, OUTRO] Don't be a stranger. Say hi to Heidi at 561-206-2473, or bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com. Check out our Book of Life podcast Facebook page or our Facebook discussion group Jewish Kidlit Mavens. We are occasionally on Twitter too at @BookofLifePod. Want to read books featured on the show? Buy them through Bookshop.org/shop/bookoflife, to support the podcast and independent bookstores at the same time. You can also help us out by becoming a monthly supporter through Patreon, or by making a one time donation to our home library, the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida. You'll find links to all of that and more at BookofLife podcast.com Our background music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Thanks for listening, and happy reading.