Member Spotlight: Samantha and Tiff of Henrietta's Little Free Library
Member Spotlight
We recently interviewed Samantha and Tiff, very special OurShelves members who run Henrietta's Little Free Library in Duluth, MN.
📚 They host Henrietta's Little Free Library, stocked with OurShelves-curated diverse children's books!
📚 They've been OurShelves members since 2020!
📚 "The 100+ Club": They've received more than 100 books from OurShelves!
1) Why is it important to you to share books with your community through your Little Free Library?
“We started our Little Free Library during the pandemic. We knew we couldn’t fix everything, but we asked ourselves, ‘What can we do in our community to spread more kindness?’ Through sharing diverse stories, we felt like we could make a difference.
What I’m about to tell you makes me tear up . . . It hits us the most on Halloween. People come by and share, ‘Oh my gosh, your library means so much to us.’
Also, every Halloween, this group of kids come by, and they say, “Are you the librarians?” And we’re not librarians of course:), but we love that the kids in our neighborhood know where to come to find diverse stories. We love being their trusted book source.”
2) Why is it important to you to prioritize sharing diverse books with your community?
“Feeling seen saves lives.
Growing up, I never saw myself in a book. Being queer was not talked about. It wasn’t an option. It wasn’t until college and after college that I secretly found the queer literature section in the back corner of a bookstore, and I came out.
It also meant a lot to me to see disabled characters portrayed in a positive light, something I also never saw growing up.
Diverse books make me feel okay to be me, and make other kids feel it’s okay to be them.
We will never stop sharing diverse books!”
3) What has been the reaction of your community to offering OurShelves-curated diverse books as part of your LFL?
“It’s been cool to see how much our community has rallied around this. A neighbor gave us $60 to buy more books. My dentist even gave us money to share more books!
We also love observing how people visit our Little Free Library.
We’ve seen families grab some books and then lay down on the sidewalk and read for an hour!
There’s also a preschool in the neighborhood. They come by weekly, in line, attached to their knots on the rope. They have a set process for visiting our library. One child gets to choose one story. After that child chooses a story, they pass it to the child behind them who then carries the book back to the school. It’s the same process each time. :)
One queer teen shared that they live in a fundamentalist Christian family, and we offered a hug and some books to let them know they’re okay being who they are. We don’t actually have a Pride flag up, but our Little Free Library signals that we’re a safe space to people like this teen. Interestingly, some people visit our library who might not come if we had a Pride flag, but they do come up to check out our Library. That’s cool too.
We had a family reach out because their child had cochlear implants and they had never found a book featuring a child with cochlear implants. We were able to find some books to share, including THE BREAD PET from OurShelves, a fun story about making sourdough.
We had another woman who would regularly drive 45 minutes to our library!”
4) Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your process in setting up your Little Free Library?
“We bought our library on facebook marketplace from a lovely woman named Wilma. Her mom, Henrietta, loved books and chickens. When Henrietta died, Wilma hired a designer to design this barn-themed Little Free Library in honor of her mom. An artist also sculpted some little chickens to be at the foot of the library on the sidewalk. When Wilma moved and no longer had a sidewalk, she decided to pass along her library to us. And she even came to the opening!
So Henrietta’s love of chickens and books now lives on in Henrietta’s Little Free Library!
Kids love it and call it “The Chicken Library!”
I make bookmarks and post cards that people can take with them, which is another way we hope to spread more kindness around the world.”
5) What made you choose OurShelves as a trusted source of diverse books for your LFL?
“We don’t have our own kids – we’re the queer aunties of the neighborhood! – so we didn’t know current diverse children’s books as well as we know YA [young adult] and adult books. So Tiff googled to find a company to help us.
When Alli (OurShelves Founder) and I spoke on the phone, we immediately connected to your personal story, your curation values, and the OurShelves advocacy mission too.
We loved your expertise in children’s literature so you’re our trusted source for diverse kids’ books! We had first started by trying to find and read the kids’ books ourselves, but that was too stressful. We love that we can trust the expertise of the OurShelves Curation Team to find, review, and share these books with us!
Also, the fact that OurShelves is organizing our collective purchasing power – through all of us members – to advocate for the many more diverse books still needed meant a lot to us. We felt like OurShelves is not only doing the research to send us wonderful diverse books, but we’re also, through OurShelves, advocating to create change. We decided this is the kind of effort where we wanted to spend our money.”
6) What is one of your or your community’s favorite OurShelves books, and why?
“BABY GOES TO MARKET is one of our favorites! [Check out the video author Atinuke made for OurShelves!]”
8) Is there anything about the year 2024 that makes you especially inspired to continue to share diverse books through your community?
“Well, we’re aware of the rise in book bans, and even our parents are getting involved! My dad printed out the list of the top 100 banned books and is slowly buying the list for us.
Recently some kids ripped down the Pride Flag hanging on our neighbor’s home. That was really crushing. There are a few loud voices telling people they don’t belong.
We will continue sharing diverse books because we still need to show that there’s hope, kindness, and welcoming and safe spaces.”
9) What would you like to say to someone considering starting a Little Free Library to share diverse books with their community? (Any recommendations? Advice? ideas?)
“It’s so fun! And there’s no right way to do it! Start somewhere, and it doesn’t need to be perfect. Any good you add is good:).
Also, be creative. For example, Tiff threw me a birthday party where we asked each person to bring a book for our library.”
10) What else would you like to share about your OurShelves/LFL experience?
We’re pleased to be part of the OurShelves work and that in that, we’re contributing to the advocacy of both supporting existing diverse books and advocating for the diverse books still needed. We want to be part of more diverse stories being told and being accessible!
