I had only just sat down on the Creed family’s couch when two-year-old Edward came over with his ‘You Shouldn’t Touch Dragons’ book to share with me.
“The kids just love books and they had so many that we wanted to let everyone else in the community make use of them”, says Jasmine.
Redoing their kitchen left the family with an unused cupboard which they decided would be the ideal place to store the excess of their children’s growing collection of books. But building onto that original idea, they decided to store them and the cupboard outside, near the footpath, so others could help themselves.
They used social media to let people know about the books and people started coming. They came to take books but also to drop books off. So many books that Tim and Jasmine decided they were going to need to replace their old kitchen cupboard with something a little bigger and dryer for the books.
Nelson Golf Club came through with a no-longer-used, two-door fridge which only required a little bit of care by Tim to make it fully functional as an outdoor book exchange.
It also received new purpose-specific branding through a decorative paint job by Jasmine which included painted handprints from Elizabeth.
The glass doors of the fridge make it easier to see what’s inside and, with shelving, Jasmine said it’ll be a whole lot tidier than the previous kitchen cupboard option.
The idea is for a book exchange; take some, bring them back or not. Jasmine’s not too concerned about whether the requirements of a true book exchange are met.
The object is to share both the benefit and the love of reading and if that’s happening, then that’s the best result.
Tim, who works with auto parts, said his favourite book is the A to Z of car parts, which he has shared with the children.