FREE LIBRARY

“We wanted to create a space for people to pause and enjoy the green belt that we’re on and the bike path is on,” she said. “Especially through covid, it was a way that I felt like we could put wellness out in the world with something as healthy as reading that creates a mindful, peaceful experience, but also gets them outside and active.”

Monson said the library quickly became self-sustaining once it opened and has since become a xture in the community.

“People often comment to thank us or leave notes,” she said. “It’s like an identity of our family, which we love.”

On top of being a way to build community, little free libraries improve access to literature. Unite for Literacy, a publishing company that tracks book deserts, estimates only a third of Colorado homes have more than 100 books.

Amber DeBerry, Director of Community Engagement for Douglas County Libraries, said improving access to reading materials, whether that’s books, magazines, journals or comics, is important because reading bene ts everyone.

“If you have access to books prior to the age of ve, your success rates in school drastically increase,” DeBerry said. “For people who don’t have the opportunity or ability to purchase books, libraries are an incredible community asset.”

In Dianne Shantz’s neighborhood in Adams County, she noticed there weren’t nearly as many little free libraries as more a uent areas of Denver, so Shantz built one in 2021.

Shantz used a thrifted co ee table and an old kitchen counter with a repurposed replace door to create a weatherproof library and food pantry near her community’s shared mailbox, which provides steady foot tra c.

“I’m proud to say (the library) is self-sustaining because it shows that there was a need there, and that’s true of the pantry too,” she said.

Shantz said she enjoys having opportunities to share her love of reading and tries to stock the library with books she knows her visitors will read.

“Being new to the neighborhood, it’s given me a chance to meet my neighbors,” she said. “A lot of Hispanic people live in the area, so I try to include Spanish books. One lady likes Danielle Steel, so I put those in when I can.”

For Kate Garland, a graduate of Castle View High School in Castle Rock, building a little free library was a way to memorialize her friend and fellow student Brooke Adams, who died in April.

Garland met Adams through the school book club she started and they bonded over reading.

“Brooke and I both loved the ‘ e Summer I Turned Pretty’ series by Jenny Han and somebody donated the entire set so we made sure that those were in there,” Garland said. “Some of Brooke’s other friends also picked booked they thought she would like.”

When Adams died, Garland worked with Adams’ family, school o cials, the school’s Technology Students Association and book club members to build the library and host a book drive to ll it. Materials for the library were donated by the local Ace Hardware and community members donated more than 1,000 books during the drive.

“ e community support around it and the continuing book donations have been really rewarding for me and the book club and the TSA members who helped,” she said.

As Garland heads to Arapahoe Community College, the stewardship of the library will pass on to other students in the book club.

“We wanted to make sure it would keep going, even after I’m gone,” she said.

To nd these little free libraries and more, go to littlefreelibrary.org.