Little Free Library comes to Somers
It’s the little things in life that matter to Jesse Lasater-Keller.
Lasater-Keller, who owns Sudden Rush Espresso in Somers, recently installed a Little Free Library at the corner of School Addition Road and U.S. 93, next to her espresso stand.
The Little Free Library provides free reading material to anyone who wants it. Lasater-Keller wants to encourage reading among adults and children, and the Little Free Library helps achieve that, by offering a place to share books and magazines. There is only one rule to the Little Free Library stands — a love to read. You don’t need to leave a book in order to pick one up, and you don’t have to return the book you take. You are encouraged, though, to share your books with others by placing reading material in the wooden stands. The Somers Little Free Library is already getting plenty of use. Lasater-Keller has seen people leave do-it-yourself books on boat building and popular novels. There is a section just for children.
With the help of her father, Ed Lasater, and husband, Kris Keller, the family installed the Little Free Library a month ago. Jesse said she enjoys seeing how people use the library for sharing a wide variety of reading materials. She monitors the library to make sure it has family-appropriate material.
“That’s what makes it unique and fun,” she said. “You get a wide variety of books, authors and styles. There’s something for everyone.”
The first book that she put in the Little Free Library was her own book of poetry, Anguish of the Heart, that she published.
“Being both advocates of reading and literacy, we just thought it was a really cool thing to do,” she said. “It’s community minded, and you get to meet people and see what they read.”
The Lasater-Keller family has another Little Free Library built and is just waiting for a place to put it.
The Somers Little Free Library is the fourth in the Flathead Valley.
Todd Bol of Hudson, Wis. and Rick Brooks of Madison, Wis. started the Little Free Library movement in 2009. Bol dedicated the first library in the memory of his mother.
“She was a teacher who loved books, loved kids, the kind of mom that was everybody’s mom,” Bol said in a telephone interview with the Daily Inter Lake.
In Kalispell, retired pastor Rusty Halaas built a tiny book nook, modeling it after the Norwegian Stabbur-style cabin he vacations at on Ashley Lake. Halaas said he hopes his Little Free Library gets more people reading and visiting with their neighbors. He hopes people will be inspired to build more Free Little libraries.
The Little Free Library is an international movement, with libraries sprouting up in parks, schools, yards, porches and stores.
On the Web: littlefreelibrary.org