The whimsical green box alight with dragonflies, butterflies, birds and flowers simply invites curiosity. It’s so darn cute. Birdhouse or fanciful lawn decor? Take a closer look. A sign on the front that says “Little Free Library” instructs you to “take a book or return a book.” As your book-loving heart skips a beat, open the box. Behold the books, all kinds of books — mysteries, thrillers, inspirational, how-to, children’s stories. Now go ahead, take one. It’s free.
“People take books, drop off books — it’s really fun,” says Barrie Wurzburg of the little green box, a self-serve library that’s her way of sharing her enthusiasm for reading and books with the 320-some residents of the Horseshoe Lake community in Crittenden County.
Wurzburg’s box of books is a “little free library,” one of 29 freestanding boxes of books in Arkansas that is registered with the nonprofit Little Free Libraries organization (littlefreelibrary.org) in Hudson, Wis. See Wednesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more.