Last year Mrs. Roth and Ms C Smith introduced a fantastic new resource to our school: the Cougar Book Cart, or Little Free Library. Designed to fill the gaps in leisure reading at Lakeville South, it had glowing reviews in its first year. Students “love feeling the excitement of getting a new book” and “seeing others exploring the cart”. With sky high popularity, one student observed that 3 new books added to the shelf were “gone within the hour”. Both staff and students have eagerly contributed. The book cart is a novel presence that “allows people to explore others’ recommendations”, so don’t miss out!
This school year the book cart is up and running again; read below to hear from Ms. Roth about what the LFL is!
Mrs. Roth’s Comments:
1) Could you give a short summary of what the Little Free Library is?
The Cougar Book Cart, or our LFL, is a place where people in our building can leave or take books to read, in hopes of growing a more positive reading culture here at LSHS.
2) What inspired you to create this library?
One, I love books. Two, I have a LFL at my own house and I see how much joy it brings. Three, I noticed that students are more likely to check out books from my classroom cart than walk to the library, so I hypothesized that if more students had books in proximity then more students would read. It’s a great way to build community in general, which I love, but also such a great opportunity for so many students. I truly believe that time spent reading creates opportunities for success and I want that for kids here at South.
3) How did you choose the books featured?
To start, we wanted to fill the cart with quality books that would look appealing to kids. I did a big purge of books I own at my house and brought in bags to share. I also asked around to other teachers and staff who donated like Deb Arnold, Laurie Stave, and Lydia Linsoe.
4) Any other notable parts in the process of setting this up?
In hopes of propelling the success of the FLL I spent some time trying to roll it out in a meaningful and positive way. I spoke with Principal Murphy to get the idea approved. I tried a proof of concept with a small cart in my room and outside my door. I asked my department chair to socialize the idea at the department chair and SLT meetings. I am so happy that Mary C Smith got involved in helping me make this a reality. She found a cart we could use and was open to the idea of spray painting it teal– it can’t look like a normal library cart, right!?! I found reading stickers to put on the cart to add a little visual interest and made sure to try talking it up to all my classes. I asked them to help spread the word about what it was and how it worked. I also created a teacher sign-up so we have a plan for where it will be for the whole year. Finally, I found and practiced some very corny jokes with MCS– we had to introduce the cart in a teacher-staff meeting and she totally killed her performance. She hobbled up to the front holding her back, and when I asked her what happened she said, “I slipped in the NonFRICTION section!!”
5) What’s your goal for the project going forward?
I want kids to take books. Read them. Love them. Or not. Talk about them. Share them. Bring new ones in to add. MCS and I talked about posting monthly updates for students to follow. I would love to highlight students who use the cart to talk about books they have found and loved. Eventually, I would love to see it be so popular we need to add a whole SECOND cart!!!!
6) Please leave a short message for anyone interested in using the library!
I encourage you to look for the teal Cougar Book Cart and use it!! Books and reading can be so powerful; do yourself a favor and take advantage of this resource (and others!) Also, pay it forward by sharing really good books that your peers may enjoy reading– there is joy in giving, and an initiative like this is most powerful when we all participate.
If you made it to the end of this article, go hunt for the book cart! If you’re a staff member, sign up to welcome the LFL to your classroom. Whoever you are, there’s a way for you to contribute to or use the cart. A junior at south puts it best, “donate more books, please please please!”
