Ballwin Neighborhood Sets Up Its Own Library

BALLWIN, MO. (KPLR) – It was a symbol of the rich rural virtues of America.  The little red schoolhouse has all but disappeared.

“It was a time in historic America were everything was simple and easy,” says Shannon Menard

It’s the memories and the importance of the old schoolhouse that inspired Shannon to bring back this piece of history.

On a pole in her front yard is a miniature red schoolhouse that contains about 60 books geared for many different ages and topics to read.

The little red schoolhouse is a neighborhood book exchange.  Anyone can take a book.  When finished, just return that book back or a bring back a different book.   All at no charge.

“I think it’s pretty cool.  At first I thought it was a birdhouse and then I realized it was a library,” says a neighborhood visitor Ben Miller.

This little neighborhood book exchange is part of a larger movement, Little Free Libraries is a nonprofit group that began in Wisconsin and has been encouraging reading worldwide with these pop up libraries.

Shannon Menard hopes that more front yard libraries will be built.  She says, “I would love to see hundreds of them pop up all over the state of Missouri.”