Age:
Post High School
Reading Level: 4.7
Chapter 1
I don’t remember when I heard about the little free library. It’s a great idea though.
You put out a bookshelf or cabinet in front of your house. Then you put books in it.
People can come whenever they want and take a book to read. Totally for free.
Maybe they’ll bring it back. Maybe they won’t.
Maybe they’ll leave a book. Maybe they won’t.
But once you put a little free library out in front of your house, you try to keep books in it. All types. For whoever comes along.
Chapter 2
When I first installed a little free library in front of my house, no one was coming. It wasn’t getting much use.
Then one day, a car pulled up.
“Mom!” my daughter shouted. She spied from the front window. “There’s an old lady using the library!”
Fast forward: Shaula didn’t just use the library. She took care of it. Every week.
She took out the less than desirable books and added better quality ones.
And she wasn’t just any old lady.
Chapter 3
One day I caught Shaula just as she was pulling away in her 20-year-old sedan. At last, I introduced myself.
This is how our friendship began.
The first thing I learned about Shaula is that she never watched TV. The second thing I learned was that she raised all her children to be readers.
I found out later that she and her husband lived for sixty years on ten acres in a mid-18th century house.
It was filled with antiques—and books, of course. They had treasures from around the world.
She was an appraiser. She could look at something, it didn’t matter how old or where it came from, and tell you what it was worth.
I found out that she gave birth to two of her children in the top floor of that house.
That she shopped at thrift stores for books because the library book sale charged too much money.
That she never checked the race box on any form. Instead, she crossed it out and wrote in “human.”
