\u201cThe only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein, though it\u2019s probably apocryphal. Regardless of who said it, this reporter believes it. If you do too, you\u2019re in luck \u2014 because there are probably more libraries in the county than you think there are. But you\u2019d be forgiven for missing them.<\/p>\n
Tucked away next to playgrounds, huddled outside of businesses, standing in front lawns, and inhabiting other odd little corners of the county, Little Free Libraries are exactly what they say they are. Often slightly larger than a milk crate, freely available for any passerby to browse, and stocked with books by whatever noble soul put them up in the first place, they exist as a monument to the simple joys of the written word.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s a joy that\u2019s shrinking in American culture. Federal data points to sustained drops in reading and book ownership across virtually every demographic. Statistics on childhood literacy are even more troubling, with the National Assessment of Educational Progress reporting that 69% of fourth graders and 70% of eighth graders read below their grade level.<\/p>\n
The tiny congregation of Maple Grove United Methodist Church, on Russ Avenue, isn\u2019t going to stand for that in Haywood County.<\/p>\n
Joyful hearts and prayerful missions<\/p>\n
The church, like the libraries it peppers around the county, is small but mighty. There are 100 members on the roll but around 50 folks show up on any given Sunday. The congregation might be far from mega-church numbers, but that didn\u2019t keep it from conducting an intensive study to see how it could best serve the county \u2014 a study that ended up convincing the members that childhood literacy would be their issue of focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in that process, we determined that free little children\u2019s libraries would be a great way to address part of this problem,\u201d said Barbara Timmington, who heads up the program for the church.<\/p>\n
Two years later, and Maple Grove has placed libraries at the Waynesville Kiwanis Community Playground, Clyde Elementary, Clyde Central United Methodist Church, and, most recently, at the Maggie Valley Town Hall Park and Playground. Three locations across Bethel and Canton are in the works.<\/p>\n
Allan Watts builds the libraries for the church, working off plans he was handed when he agreed to take on the project. The results are cheerful red and white boxes with steeply angled roofs and glassed-front doors showcasing the plethora of children\u2019s books contained within. Sometimes the libraries are adorned with a wooden cutout of a bookshelf, or children playing. For Watts, the work\u2019s reward is self-evident.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt fills my heart with joy to be able to be a part of it. It\u2019s great to see the kids when they are getting books, and they\u2019ve got big smiles on their faces. It brings joy to mean something in some little child\u2019s life, to brighten their day,\u201d he said. \u201cGiving the kids access to something that they may not have readily available.\u201d<\/p>\n
In memory of Anna<\/p>\n
But before the libraries can be used, they have to be stocked. That\u2019s where Dana Smith comes in. The long-time educator runs Anna\u2019s Books \u2014 a non-profit that Smith says is the largest children\u2019s book bank in Western North Carolina.<\/p>\n
Anna\u2019s Books is a resource for elementary school teachers, parents, and children region wide. Smith says anyone is welcome to take what they need \u2014 it\u2019s all part of carrying on the memory of Anna Williams, the former principal of Meadowbrook Elementary School in Canton.<\/p>\n
Williams passed away due to complications from the birth of her daughter in 2013. A few years later, Smith married Brian, Williams\u2019 widower, and wanted to do something to honor the woman\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer death was still very looming and still very raw and painful, and I wanted my kids to be happy. I wanted my kids to see both of their moms doing good things and not to be sad about it. So we would do Anna\u2019s Birthday Book Bash at Meadowbrook, where we would come and give the teachers books,\u201d Smith told The Mountaineer. \u201cAnd then it just kept growing and growing and growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, Smith said, all the teachers at Meadowbrook had enough books \u2014 an extraordinary statement if you know anything about how much of a teacher\u2019s diminutive paycheck goes right back into classroom supplies.<\/p>\n
Smith moved on to other schools, then other counties. Out of the ashes of tragedy, Anna\u2019s Books first kindled, then arose.<\/p>\n
While funding from Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville allows Smith to buy hard-to-find new books directly from a wholesaler, most of her stockpile is second-hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get books left on my doorstep. I leave my van unlocked, and people put them in my van,\u201d she said, chuckling.<\/p>\n
Although it started in her basement, Smith now runs Anna\u2019s Books out of Maple Grove. She distributes the books by appointment, through book fairs and events, and Maple Grove\u2019s libraries. Another wing of the church\u2019s volunteer force drives around with boxes of books and replenishes the libraries whenever they need topping off.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we took in about 10,000 books and we gave out about 8,500 into the community,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Doing good things indeed.<\/p>\n
Power of print<\/p>\n
Amanda Cooke is the office manager of The Mountaineer, where she spends her days attempting to organize an unruly and forgetful group of newspaper folks into some semblance of functionality. But that hasn\u2019t always been her fate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was originally an educational assistant for 10 years. The more kids see print, the better readers they become,\u201d she said, emphasizing the word \u201cprint\u201d as perhaps only a newspaper employee can. \u201cActually holding print helps them understand it and develop better than electronically seeing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Cooke built a Little Free Library out of an old Mountaineer newspaper rack and placed it outside the building next to the newspapers. She stocks it herself, using whatever books she can scrounge up from her network of friends and former educational colleagues. Unlike the libraries built by Maple Grove, this one contains books for all ages, with adult fare proving just as popular as children and young adult offerings.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then each book that we put in also gets a library card style bookmark,\u201d Cooke said. It\u2019s a fun little addition that helps people trace the tangled travels of books through the county \u2014 or possibly beyond. You never know where a book might end up.<\/p>\n
In fact, there are over 200,000 Little Free Libraries sprinkled across 128 countries, according to the nonprofit organization of the same name that manages them. It costs about $50 to \u201ccharter\u201d with the organization \u2014 meaning your Little Free Library is an official part of the network.<\/p>\n
Not everybody who builds a library takes the time or feels the need to buy a charter \u2014 Maple Grove\u2019s libraries aren\u2019t officially Little Free Libraries \u2014 but doing so does come with benefits. Chief among them is that a registered library is searchable on the organization\u2019s website and mobile app.<\/p>\n
Geocaching for bookworms<\/p>\n
That searchability is what got Hazelwood resident Emily Fleenor and her family interested in Little Free Libraries. Fleenor and her children were traveling in Charlotte when Fleenor\u2019s aunt suggested a trip to the neighborhood Little Free Library. Fleenor\u2019s kids were enchanted by the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I started looking for them in other places. And then I found there\u2019s an app. And you can use it to find libraries near you. So it\u2019s a really inexpensive activity when we go someplace new, to look for little free libraries. It takes you into different neighborhoods, near parks and all kinds of different places,\u201d Fleenor said.<\/p>\n
Her family had the Little Free Library bug, and so of course the next step was building one of their own. But Fleenor\u2019s house wasn\u2019t in an area that got a lot of foot traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aThen a few years ago, my in-laws bought a house on Brown Avenue with the sidewalk right in front, just three or four houses down from the middle school,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so I said, kind of offhand one day, \u2018Man this would be a great place for a Little Free Library. And that Christmas, my father-in-law made one for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fleenor\u2019s family, along with the community on Brown Avenue, keep the library stocked. And like all official Little Free Libraries, it has the slogan \u201ctake a book, leave a book,\u201d emblazoned across the charter plaque.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the way Little Free Libraries are supposed to work. But as you may have gleaned from reading this story, more often people just take a book without leaving one in return.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s OK, says every person interviewed for this story. The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that 61% of children living at or below the poverty line have no books at home.<\/p>\n
Those are stats no educator worth their salt can abide.<\/p>\n
And if you guessed that Fleenor \u2014 like Amanda Cooke, like Dana Smith \u2014 has a background in education, you guessed right. She\u2019s a second-grade teacher at Junaluska Elementary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re passionate about books,\u201d Fleenor laughs when the Little Free Library\/educator overlap is pointed out.<\/p>\n
Smith, busily cycling thousands of books through the county and beyond, agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to get books into the hands of kids. It\u2019s important for kids to own their own books and be able to choose books that they want,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a kid loves a book, let them have it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.\u201d That\u2019s a quote…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88,3],"class_list":{"0":"post-3480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}