This whimsical addition to Lynn Arnold’s yard is a Little Free Library. Little“take a book, leave a book”structures like this are popping up all over the country. Arnold has ordered a permanent sign that will be added soon. But don’t wait until then—take a stroll and stop by the county’s first Little Free Library!
Although “Little Free Libraries” are taking the state, the nation, perhaps even the world, by storm, the phenomenon is relatively new to Cook County. There are at least two Little Free Libraries in the planning stage or under construction in Grand Marais. However, Lynn Arnold’s Little Free Library at her home at 103 Third Avenue West in Grand Marais is already open for readers.
Arnold was delighted to help spread the idea of Little Free Libraries. She noted that Little Free Libraries are cropping up everywhere. They are spots where people are invited to take a book, return a book—without a library card, limit to how long the book can be kept, or even a requirement to return it at all.
It is hoped that as people take a book from one Little Free Library, they will leave it at another, at any of the hundreds of Little Free Libraries across the state.
Little Free Libraries range from simple boxes containing books to elaborate little structures, like the original Little Free Library, built as a model of an old one-room schoolhouse in Hudson, Wisconsin in 2009. There are now an estimated 15,000 Little Free Libraries worldwide.
Arnold’s Little Free Library is a whimsical little structure— a colorful purple, orange and green box atop of sturdy cedar-sided post. It has Plexiglas sides to protect the books inside from the weather and to make the books visible to passersby. Her Little Free Library contractor, Matt Geretschlaeger of Grand Marais, added a unique woodwork adornment and a solar light panel for her. “Matt did an incredible job,” said Arnold. “He’s very talented.”
Geretschlaeger also ensured that the proper permit was obtained for the Little Free Library. Arnold had to pay a $35 building permit fee for the Little Free Library that is about the size of an average doghouse or an oversized birdhouse. “I have the smallest permitted structure in Cook County,” laughed Arnold.
It is a tiny structure that she hopes gets visited often. She has stocked it with a nice assortment of fiction and nonfiction, children’s chapter books and board books. “Stop by and take a book, or leave a book,” she said.
And, check out the website to see how to build your own, maintain it or find a Little Free Library wherever you go, Arnold said. “They’re everywhere!” she said.
Visit the Little Free Library website at: littlefreelibrary.org/
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