Books and flowers: the roof garden Little Free Library

One of our recent creations! The roof garden Little Free Library. It reminds us of an Oscar Wilde quote: "With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy."

The Little Free Library will be hosted by author and school librarian Lucy Ivison outside her home in Acton, West London. We hope that the unique design will attract and engage readers from across the community.

Visit our website for more on our recent projects.

Swindon's first Little Free Library

Every Little Free Library is completely unique and Swindon's first is no different. We were lucky enough to work with the supremely talented Lynette Thomas of Artkore Mosaics, who has created a stunning artwork that will be on show, and offering free books to the community, outside Savernake Street Social Hall in Swindon's Old Town.

The project has been created in partnership with the Eastcott Community Organisation who run a range of community events at the Savernake Street venue including a Free Shop and a regular reading group. Find out more about upcoming events here. The LFL was made possible by a grant from Swindon Borough Council.

The Little Free book exchange was launched on Sunday 12 July at the communty's Big Lunch and Neighbourhood Party event and people began to take and donate books straight away.

The intricate mosaic art makes use of recycled pottery and china including cups, plates and even old teapots, which are broken into colourful pieces of varying size to create the beautiful design. As far as we know its the first ceramic mosaic Little Free Library in the world and will take pride of place on the Little Free Library world map in due course.

"This is the first, but we're hoping to create many more Little Free Libraries in Swindon and the South West of England." said Nick Cheshire, Director of Little Free Library UK. There are currently two Little Free Libraries in Bath and one set to open in Torbay later this summer with work underway for a Bristol project too.

"I have really enjoyed creating the Little Free Library mosaic." said artist Thomas. The hosts agreed on a nature theme and Thomas did the rest. Stunning!

www.littlefreelibraryproject.org.uk

Books in the playground

Books open us up to a world of imagination, but before a child chooses to pick up, open and read a book, they need to be inspired to do so. If books are fuel for the imagination, then the places where the books reside must inspire us too.

As part of a new national project we're installing unique and engaging Little Free Libraries in schools, more specifically in the school playgrounds, where children play. The scheme encourages children to take books as well as share their favourite stories with one another too.

Children at Priory Infants School at the launch of their Little Free Library

Each Little Free Library is decorated with an engaging artistic design, in many cases based on ideas suggested by children during school workshops.

Illustrator and author Polly Dunbar with students at Priory Infants School

We work with a wide range of professional artists and illustrators, who not only decorate our Little Free Libraries, but also come into schools with us to conduct art workshops. We also host community events outside school aimed at encouraging children's interest in art. Below, an aspiring artist at a recent event at Higham Hill Hub in North East London. Artist Kiko Honda-Powell created mini LFL templates for budding designers to create their own Little Free Libraries.

"I've designed a Little Library!"

Teachers and literacy leads at the schools we have worked with tell us that they are keen to use every possible resource available to promote reading in their schools and at home. By supplementing school libraries with Little Free Libraries, children have even more access to books and in less conventional settings.

"Having Little Free Libraries at School, where children can choose a book to keep and perhaps return one with a recommendation, will make a huge difference." said Deputy Head Ben Cooper from Heathmere Primary School in South West London.

We also work with partners such as publishers and other charities such as Give a Book to access high quality books to stock our Little Free Libraries.

Illustrator and author Gary Northfield with children at Heathmere Primary School

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.

Our Books in the Playground project offers teachers and educators an additional tool to help promote reading in school, while our community projects are installing Little Free Libraries in front gardens, parks and other community spaces where children and their parents can access free books all day, everyday.

For more information about this project or about our other community projects please email us at contact@littlefreelibraryproject.org.uk.

Happy reading!

Photos from Priory Infants School Little Free Library launch.

www.littlefreelibraryproject.org.uk

Central London's first Little Free Library

To help celebrate their 50th anniversary, International Students House (ISH) has worked in partnership with us at Little Free Library Project to create central London's first Little Free Library.

A full scale replica phone box, full of brilliant books, was officially opened on 14 May by author John Rogers. John's book, This Other London: Adventures in the overlooked city, tells the story of John's journey to discover some of the more overlooked and unusual aspects of our wonderful international city, like our latest Little Free Library.

Central London's first Little Free Library is located outside International Students House at 229 Great Portland Street, London (opposite Great Portland Street tube station).

Little Free Libraries take many forms, from small house shaped boxes with various artistic designs to phone boxes and even a TARDIS. They are installed in front gardens, cafes, pubs and community spaces and of course, now, outside International Students House. Here are a few of our other Little Free Libraries.

Walthamstow, art by cartoonist Tim Reedy

Hackney, art by urban artist Hannah Adamaszek

Woolwich, art by illustrator Emma Russell

Find out more at www.littlefreelibraryproject.org.uk. Happy reading!

Kickstart our school project and receive your very own Little Free Library

Heathmere Primary school doesn't have a school library at the moment. To help promote a love of reading at the school and provide a regular supply of engaging books, we've teamed up with 'Give a Book' to build a mini network of Little Free Libraries at Heathmere.

We've created a new Kickstarter project to help raise the funds for this much needed school project. We're asking you to support us if you can by pledging any amount starting at £1. However, if you, your community or an organisation you represent is willing to pledge £250, we'll build you your very own Little Free Library too.

Find out more by following the link to our project below:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1332488210/little-free-libraries-for-heathmere-primary-school

To give you some inspiration, here are a few of our recent Little Free Libraries. Happy reading!

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