Julius Zebra set to open School's new Little Free Library

On 5 May we'll be officially opening a new Little Free Library at Heathmere Primary School in Wandsworth, South West London. To help us we've invited along author and illustrator Gary Northfield, creator of the brilliant Julius Zebra.

The Little Free Library was built from 100% recycled materials and decorated by one of our in-house artists with an inspiring fairytale theme. It will be located in the school playground where children will have access to books at break times as well as before and after school.

We are working with our partners Give a Book on this exciting new project, who will be donating books to the Little Free Library throughout the year.

Gary will cut the ribbon to officially open the new LFL as well as reading from his book and getting the children involved in a draw-along so they can learn how to create their own version of Julius Zebra. 

"Heathmere Primary School doesn't currently have a school library, which is why projects like this can be so beneficial. The children will be able to access free books to take home and keep, as well as sharing their favourite stories with each other." said Nick Cheshire, LFL Project Director.

The school would like two more Little Free Libraries to be created and installed over the next few months. We'll be launching a fundraising campaign on 5 May to help make this happen. 

Read about the Little Free Library in the Wandsworth Guardian here.

www.littlefreelibraryproject.org.uk

World Book Night events from Little Free Library Project UK

World Book Night is a celebration of our love of reading and an opportunity for people in communities across the country and across the world to share books with one another.

Little Free Libraries and World Book Night were made for each other. Every day people around the world share books with one another to promote reading via a network of more than 25,000 Little Free Libraries.

To help celebrate World Book Night, Little Free Library Project UK has teamed up with some fantastic publishers to give away a wonderful collection of brilliant books specifically aimed at children and young people.

DK Books and Walker Books have both generously donated some brilliant titles that will be distributed across a number of our Little Free Libraries as part of a special World Book Night event.

The Alex Rider collection by Anthony Horowitz from the fantastic folks at Walker Books.

A first book of Fairy Tales, Everything you need to know about dinosaurs, Space: A Children's Encyclopedia and many more from the brilliant DK Books.

We have lots of copies to give away from a number of London Little Free Libraries including Wingfield Road, Walthamstow, Victory Park, Stratford, Victoria Park, Hackney, Brettenham Road, Walthamstow, Prah Road, Finsbury Park and Red Lion Lane, Woolwich.

A young reader lost in a book at our Wingfield Road Little Free Library in Walthamstow.

Picking up a book on the way home from school, Brettenham Road, Walthamstow.

These special books will be in Little Free Libraries after 5pm. If you would like to find out a specific address/postcode please send us a direct message on Facebook (www.facebook.com/LittleFreeLibraryProject). Please share your World Book Night stories and photos with us on Twitter too (@LFLProject). Happy reading!

www.littlefreelibraryproject.org.uk

Little Free Libraries: supporting communities and schools to engage children with reading

All of the evidence suggests and involved professionals agree that reading is one of the most important factors in helping children reach their full potential.

In a recent report Save the Children outlined four key drivers to help ensure children are able to read well:

1. Celebrating the enjoyment of reading in communities;
2. Supporting children to develop good early language skills before starting school;
3. Providing the right support to primary schools; and
4. Supporting mothers and fathers to help their children's reading.

Little Free Libraries, as part of an overall strategy, are able to support the achievement of each of these four goals, providing an excellent tool to teachers, parents and communities to help promote a love of reading.

At Little Free Library Project UK we are working across the country with communities and schools to help engage children with reading. Clearly what our Little Free Libraries offer is just a small part of the solution. The fantastic work of public libraries, teachers, parents and third sector organisations all works in unison to help promote the love of reading to children and young people.

Our Little Free Libraries are now installed at several primary schools across the UK and the feedback from teachers, parents and children has been overwhelmingly positive.

On 26 March 2015 we installed a new Little Free Library at Heathmere Primary School in Roehampton, London. The school is located at the centre of the Alton estate. As soon as it was installed, and as the school day came to an end, children and parents stopped by to take a look and pick up a book. We asked the Deputy Head, Ben Cooper, why he thought Little Free Libraries could help at Heathmere:

"At Heathmere Primary School, we are passionate about reading.  We want to give our children every possible opportunity to pick up a book, open a page and get lost in a story. Developing a love of books and encouraging children to read for pleasure is at the heart of everything we do.  We are setting up a library in school, investing in the books children have in class and inviting authors in to school to talk to the children – anything and everything that helps children to read.

As part of this, we want to set up Little Free Libraries in the school grounds. The school is in an area of high deprivation - we know that lots of our children don't have access to many books at home.  Having a Little Free Library, where children can choose a book to keep and perhaps return one with a recommendation, will make a huge difference."

Last year we installed several Little Free Libraries at schools in London and Essex, including Frederick Bremer School, Kingston Primary and Thundersley Primary and earlier this year installed four Little Free Libraries at Bearwood Primary School in Birmingham. Next month Priory Infants School in Ramsgate and Chapel End Infants School in Walthamstow will open their new Little Free Libraries.

The Little Free Library at Frederick Bremer School has now been in place for several months. We spoke to English teacher of 23 years, Kate Kelly, to get her feedback on the school's LFL. Here is what she had to say:

"As an English teacher with a passion for improving children's literacy and fostering within them a life long love of books and all they can offer, Little Free Libraries offer an innovative and unique way of promoting reading for pleasure in schools and in our communities."

As part of the Frederick Bremer project we went in to the school to meet year 7 students and involved them directly in the artwork for their Little Free Library. "Getting the children involved in designing the Little Free Library helps give them ownership of the project and they have lots of fun too!" says Little Free Library Project UK director Nick Cheshire.

Being able to access a Little Free Library at school and then finding one outside school in the community helps to create a connection between school and home life. They encourage children and young people to take books home to read, but also help promote the joy of sharing by enabling them to put books into the LFLs too.

Over the course of the next year Little Free Library Project UK will be installing LFLs in many more schools across the country. If you are a teacher or parent and would like to find out more about getting a Little Free Library at your school please contact our director Nick Cheshire or see our website for more details.

Gallery:

Save the Children report: 'Read on, Get on.' September 2014

Little Free Libraries around the UK

As we begin to plan for 2015, we take a look back at some of the LFLs we installed around the UK over the past year.

It is our aim to have installed 100 in total by the end of 2015. Increasing access to books, promoting art and bringing communities together through their love of reading.

Little Free Libraries around London and the UK

Happy reading!

Young readers in Birmingham take delivery of their Little Free Libraries

Young readers at Bearwood Primary School in Birmingham quickly start making use of their new Little Free Libraries.

Funded by the Siobhan Dowd Trust, we have created four colourful LFLs especially for children at this wonderful primary school in Birmingham.

Bearwood Primary School is the fourth school in the UK to host a Little Free Library and the first in Birmingham. Three of the Little Free Libraries will provide books just for kids, but one will also contain books for older readers (including parents) when it is installed a local community cafe.

The Siobhan Dowd Trust have funded the project and will also be supplying a wide selection of books for these enthusiastic young students. "We are very grateful to the wonderful Siobhan Dowd Trust and pleased to have worked with them to create this new network of Little Free Libraries in Birmingham." said Nick Cheshire, Director of Little Free Library Project UK.

Happy reading!

www.littlefreelibraryproject.org.uk

Three more Little Free Libraries for London

Our latest Little Free Libraries were installed in Highams Park, London E4 on 19 December 2014. The official launch is today. Pop by and pick up a book. Happy reading!

A Little Free Library just for children and young people

We'll be installing the first of our 'Just for Kids' Little Free Libraries in London on Friday 3rd October. Thanks to the Guardian Series for writing about the project. Read more here.