Promoting Literacy With a Side of Activism
By Kim Bullock | October 21, 2024 |
Two-and-a-half years ago, after a vocal minority began storming into school board meetings across the state of Texas and demanding that an increasingly long list of books be removed from library shelves, I felt personally attacked. I am sure many writers do when book banning becomes rampant.
When I looked over the list of ‘uncomfortable’ books being challenged, I saw a lot of familiar titles, novels I had been required to read in junior high. 1984. Animal Farm. Maus. Night. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl. My teacher, whom I still keep in touch with, taught us that education was our best weapon against history repeating itself, and that one of the biggest danger signs to watch for is the backlash against intellectualism. A dumbing down of the curriculum. A whitewashing of history.
This is exactly what I saw happening. So, so many of the books being removed from libraries were about race, about the Holocaust, and, of course, anything with LGBTQIA+ themes, no matter how wholesome the actual story. Why, I asked myself, are the adults in the room not wanting the kids to learn to recognize fascism? To recognize antisemitism? To know that families come in many forms?
As I discussed in this post from 2022, my idea to put up a Little Free Library in my yard progressed quickly. I live in a corner house on a well-travelled street near two public schools. Four additional schools have bus stops in my yard. It’s a perfect location.
I got quite a lot of support from the Writer Unboxed community when I started this project, so I thought you might like an update for how things are going now that the library, which is named Maus House thanks to our own Heidi Lacey, is well established in my neighborhood.
–Hundreds of books have been ‘checked out’ each year.
–More than I expected get returned.
–Teachers donate a lot of books from their classroom libraries. Neighbors donate as their kids outgrow books.
–Word has spread that I have a Read in Color library; the majority of my patrons are minorities.
–Traditional literature is ignored unless it is on a banned list.
–Deep-themed YA books fly out of there. So do fantasy books.
–People love signed books. ARCs go fast, too.
–LGBTQIA+ books are usually gone in a few days and, yes, it is teens taking them. I have been thanked for stocking them both on the app and in person.
Even if you have no interest in using a Little Free Library as a means of quiet activism, it can be a rewarding way to help promote literacy and an excuse to buy more copies of books written by your friends! (Easily a dozen copies of Vaughn Roycroft’s novels have passed through my library into readers’ hands, so I keep buying them.)
A few tips if you want to open your own library…
Be patient
It takes time for people to learn where your library is and how it works. People are not programmed to walk onto someone’s property and just take something without knowing for certain that’s what it is there for. Putting out a flag inviting them to take or leave a book helps. I added my library to the map on the Little Free Library app, which meant ‘regular’ patrons found me more quickly. Neighborhood traffic increased quite a bit when the local newsletter featured Maus House.
It’s your library to curate (or not)
Some stewards fill their library the first time and then let patrons fill or empty it at will and don’t give it another thought. Some only stock kids books or religious books or classic literature. Others accept all books.
I view my library as a service to my community. As such, I keep it relatively full and I change out books that don’t move after a couple of weeks for ones that might. I leave pencils, erasers, stickers and cheap little toys out there – enough so that I’ve noticed parents of young kids using my library as a reward stop. Since mainly kids use it, I do keep an eye on what’s in there and would remove, say, a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey. Controversial young adult novels stay, though.
Part of my backstock
Know your community
Yes, I live in Texas, but in a relatively liberal area of a relatively liberal metropolis. I don’t have a sign up saying ‘get your banned books here’ but I do list myself as having them on the app. No one is likely to show up armed on my doorstep because they found a picture book about a penguin with two dads in my library. This may be more of a risk where you live. Plan accordingly.
You will probably need a LOT of books
I quickly learned that if I wanted my library stocked with mainly challenged books, I was going to have to buy them myself. Even going to Half-Price books, that got expensive fast! I now only put out one or two of those titles at a time and fill the rest with donated books or ones that I’ve bought in bulk. The Book Bundler is a good place to get books. You can choose themes/age groups, but not specific titles. I’ve gotten many shipments of good quality children’s books from them, which is helpful since those fly out of my library. They do offer a ‘Diversity Bundle’ which features books by BIPOC authors. You can also buy books in bulk with free shipping on eBay. Need to go cheaper than that? Neighborhood Buy Nothing groups are a good source. Announcing you need books on the Little Free Library app also works. Leaving a little bit of blank space in your library encourages donations.
Make sure you have room to store your backstock.
Be prepared for vandalism
My library is along a busy road, so this hasn’t been awful. Stickers are sometimes taken out of the library and stuck to the plexiglass on the door. A junior high kid once ripped the door off entirely. (Having a camera stopped all shenanigans.)
Stamp your books
There are people who drive around and clean out entire libraries, or at least all the books of quality, to try to resell them to a used bookstore. Those stores won’t take books with the bar codes blacked out or if there is a Little Library stamp inside. Lesson learned.
My library is probably more of an expense than it really needs to be, but it brings me joy in a chaotic and maddening world.
Have you ever used a Little Free Library? Would you consider being a steward for one? Any other suggestions for promoting literacy?
Kim (she/her) has an M.A. in English from Iowa State University. She writes mainly historical fiction, though has also contributed non-fiction articles to historical and Arts and Crafts publications in both the United States and Canada. She has just finished The Oak Lovers, a novel based on the rather colorful life of her great-grandfather, landscape painter Carl Ahrens.
[coffee]
BRAVO KIM!! You wrote about this, and it is amazing and awesome that despite the negatives, you kept going, and that your library continues to offer amazing, excellent, and needed books to your community. Your post stresses your dedication, your strong belief in what you are doing. It is so true that a ripple in the ocean can become a wave. Thanks for updating WU on your steady and giving project. Books are life to me and to so many others, Beth
There really haven’t been that many negatives. The door being torn off once was not great, but my dad was able to fix it in a day and now that we have the camera pointed at the library, there has been no other issue. I love watching families show up and the kids being so happy to find a sticker or little toy. I got rid of a lot of my kids (clean and newish) little stuffed animals out there. (My kids are now 23 and 19.)
Huzzah! Great going, Kim! It’s got to feel great, actually doing something in response to the relentless attack on literature. Thanks so much for the mention and the support. Onward!
It really does! So glad I could put your books into more readers’ hands!
Hooray for you and people like you. I thought we were past the age of censorship. Silly me! Thank you for contributing to literacy. I suspect that ideas are most dangerous when suppressed, and only if we know about history can we learn from our mistakes.
Exactly – the whitewashing of history is very concerning. As is trying to shove all things LGBTQIA+ back in the closet after years of greater acceptance.
Kim, you are a modest hero—thank you! And thank the world for books, gifts of consequence, twined with gifts of delight.
Thank you so much, Tom! I’m trying to pay it forward for the lessons I learned from my favorite teacher of all time. I will never understand how ANY of her former students don’t recognize what’s happening after we spent an entire semester on the Holocaust. There are some, though…
What a great idea! I wish I had your energy, because it is non-trivial to keep anything up when things are constantly going in and out.
I love that you target the kids – they need different sources of opinions to grow up gently questioning what society offers. Being exposed to ideas is the foundation of a democracy, and reading for pleasure lasts a lifetime.
I remember struggling to find enough to read in English when I was growing up in Mexico City – would have loved this kind of a resource.
I had the same problem when I lived in Finland. Books in English cost a lot, and so I was stuck with the small shelf of English language books at the public library. I probably read all of them in the eight months I lived there!
Thank you for doing this, Kim, and for doing it in such a mindful manner. Your action proves that everyone can do something that makes a difference.
I had a Little Free Library where I lived previously (I have an HOA now, unfortunately), and I loved it. I placed a wooden bench next to it and I’d see grandparents there with their grandkids, teens after school, young parents with babies napping in strollers… I also made sure to rotate the slower-moving stuff and mix it up to offer something for everyone. I love your banned-book emphasis; if my next residence allows for a LFL, I’ll do the same!
Thank you, Tracy. It is a real labor of love.
Kim, thanks for this great update on Maus House. Thank you for doing all this–it’s a labor of love and the kids will benefit. I enjoy borrowing from and stocking the little free library near my home too. Win-win.
It’s a lot of fun. Sometimes books that don’t move well in my library move in other ones. I try to stay mindful of that and ‘book bomb’ them from time to time.
Kim:
Props to you for taking your convictions to the street (literally). My one concern, and this makes to make me an outlier, is that you may make it possible for kids to go behind their parents’ back to read something the folks don’t want them exposed to. As a pre-teen, I read books that I was really too immature to handle. I won’t be so dramatic as to say they scarred me, but they were deeply troubling to my developing psyche.
That is possible, Christine. There are books out there for multiple age groups, heavy on the kids and young adult. I do check frequently to make sure there is nothing very obviously adult-adult ( like 50 Shades, Haunting Adeline, etc.) I can’t know the complete contents of every book out there, though. There is a picture book out there now that is a very sweet, wholesome story about two male penguins who are obviously a couple. I do have a note on the cover alerting parents who may be looking in there for their kids. Some families, like mine, would not object. Others might, and I don’t want them surprised while reading the book to their kids. That’s about the best I can do. Older kids are likley well aware that gay people exist, no matter how much their parents try to shelter them.
Where I live we don’t have book bans (well, none that actually got books literally banned. There was one minister who tried to get a certain book taken off the High School reading list, and when word got out, that book became an overnight best-seller, AND got translated into other languages! We showed her), and there are LOTS of free libraries, and we had them even before Covid-19. I’ve used a few, including the one near my home, and picked up some interesting books. Mind you, not all the books are in English, but still…