The newest addition to Solid Ground’s Sand Point Housing campus isn’t much bigger than an egg crate, but it’s packed with ideas and potential.

Known as a Little Free Library, the small baby-blue box near the Lowry Community Building is a place for Sand Point residents to trade books and share a love of reading and discovery. It’s one of more than 200,000 similar book-sharing boxes across the world, including many street corners and front yards in Seattle.  

A selection of the books in stock at Sand Point Housing’s Free Little Library on a recent afternoon

And it couldn’t be simpler to take part: Just pick out a book that catches your attention, or leave one behind for a neighbor to discover. No need to check out your book or even bring it back. 

“Books don’t exist to be on a bookshelf,” says Tunny Parrish, Youth & Family Outreach & Engagement Coordinator, who worked with residents to bring the little library to Sand Point. “Books exist to be read.”  

The little box of books at Sand Point is part of a worldwide literacy movement that started in 2009 with a single little library in Hudson, Wisconsin. But the idea of bringing one to Sand Point started with several residents who suggested it at a meeting of our Family & Youth Committee, a group of residents who plan and coordinate events for the Sand Point community. The committee – funded through a grant from the Seattle Human Services Department for Family Support Services – has also organized community celebrations with food and activities for Black History Month, Pride, and Juneteenth. 

The Sand Point Little Free Library was unveiled at a “Book Bash” celebration this summer and stocked with a wide variety of books for kids and teens. The collection includes picture books in Spanish and Tigrinya – the two most commonly spoken languages at Sand Point besides English – which were created and donated by Open Hearts Big Dreams. This partnership helps ensure that young residents can see their languages, cultures, and experiences reflected in the books available to them. (Read more in Celebrating a diversity of cultures at Sand Point Housing.) 

“Books don’t exist to be on a bookshelf. Books exist to be read.” 

~Tunny Parrish, Youth & Family Outreach & Engagement Coordinator 

While many of the original books have already found their way home with young readers, the library remains just as full as when it opened a few weeks ago. “I’ve seen very few of our books remaining,” Tunny says. “They’ve been taken and they’ve been replaced. It’s full!” 

Tunny says he sees the Free Little Library as a tool for getting more books into kids’ hands. The Free Little Library is open 24/7 for curious kids to explore what books are available and discover something new. He hopes it leads to more kids reading at home with their parents. 

“It’s super important for child growth and development,” he says. “Outside the fact that you’re reading, it’s that you set aside a special time at the end of the day. ‘This is our time to sit together, and we’re doing an activity together.’ And that activity can be reading.” 

Sand Point’s tiny library is registered with the nonprofit Little Free Library, which maintains a database of all such libraries across the world on its website and an app you can download on your phone. For more information, visit the Little Free Library website.