One of the many privileges of being an academic instructor is the flexibility of the school year. The pace of the fall and spring semester is mitigated by the summer schedule. One of my personal goals for the summer, outside of research and planning for the upcoming year, is to work my way through the luxurious pile of recommended reading books that have accumulated at my bedside during the academic year.
This summer I enjoyed reading a number of current New York Times best sellers and happily shared my finds with a neighbor, Wendy, on the beach at the idyllic shoreline community where I summer. Wendy shared with me the Little Free Library she initiated and her husband Chris built for our Association this summer. This was an idea Wendy researched and implemented with the help of some teenage girls in the neighborhood. The idea is to take a book and leave a book: “To promote literacy and the love of books by building free book exchanges worldwide and to build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations.”
The amount of time and effort this small group put forth into this project and the beautiful outcome can be seen in the photos attached. Being such an advocate of reading, this Little Free Library supports all the theories and practices I subscribe to as a clinician with a passion for literacy. I look forward to seeing how this project grows in future summers.
Well done Wendy, Chris and friends!
To learn more about starting your own Little Free Library
My Summer Reading List:
“The Summer Before the War” by Helen Simonson
“Everyone Brave is Forgiven” by Chris Cleave
“The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown
“The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins
“Before the Fall” by Noah Hawley