As we talked to our readers about their book-reading habits, many of them began speaking of “little free libraries,” describing small, personalized kiosks full of books scattered across the area as though by some form of book magic.

But it’s not magic, it’s an international program that has really, REALLY caught on.

The Little Free Library nonprofit organization is based in St. Paul, Minnesota, and its aim has always been to “expand book access for all through a global network of volunteer-led Little Free Library book-exchange boxes.”

The creator of the exchange encouraged people all over the land to set up boxes full of books in their own neighborhoods so that literally nobody would be without access to reading material.

A bold plan, maybe, but my, how the avid readers of the world responded. In neighborhoods in cities and towns across the nation, people began building ornate boxes to house books or crafting them out of pre-existing contraptions, such as the old Sun Journal newspaper news boxes that once perched on street corners across the Lewiston-Auburn area.

These little libraries are filled with books that can be borrowed by anyone at any time. People are also free to contribute books, and somehow this highly unregulated system keeps these little free boxes constantly refreshed.

I had my doubts about all this, but all it takes is an observant ride around and chances are good you’ll see some of these boxes, and often where you least expect them.

Some are constructed into the forms of little houses. Others are all-business, just square boxes with sturdy doors to protect the treasure of books inside. A few are more personalized.

On a quiet end of Summer Street in Lewiston, with the serenity of Riverside Cemetery in the backdrop, stands what appears to be an old British-style phone booth painted bright red. There’s even a little phone in there, but through the glass pane door, what one mostly sees are books, and a very diverse collection it is, indeed.

There are little free libraries at Pettingill Park, on Farwell Street, in the middle of a cul-de-sac at Robinson Gardens in Lewiston. In Auburn, you will find them on Sherwood Drive, on Fletcher Road and on 7th Street.

There are many more, of course, so the Little Free Library webpage offers a mapping program where one can locate all the book kiosks — all the ones registered with the program, anyway — in his or her area.

And there are a lot of them.

“It’s huge,” says Rachel Rodrigue Nadeau, creator of the Robinson & Fortuna Little Free Library. “It’s a true community-building endeavor.”

Nadeau herself, with the help of her father, built a pair of kiosks next to her home at Robinson Gardens, a dead-end off Russell Street that ends in a cul-de-sac. These boxes were constructed out of leftover wood from earlier projects and from planks plucked from pallets and the like.

There are two boxes at Robinson Gardens: one for regular books, one for oversized picture books popular with young children. The Share Center donated a bench built so anyone who wants to get to reading at once can do so in the shade of one of the tall trees that tower over the book boxes.

Nadeau, a special education teacher at the high school, was inspired to get her little free library going once she began seeing more kids and families in the neighborhood.

“When we moved here eight years ago, there were no kids in the neighborhood,” she says. “But eventually we started having more families moving in and there were a lot more kids. And I said, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have a little free library?’ I think for parents especially, this is something that just gets the kids off the technology for a while.”

Most of the books in Nadeau’s kiosk come from donations: from the Auburn library when it cycles books out, or from regular folks looking to unload books they no longer have room for. The Share Center has also pitched in.

“This is also an effort in recycling, if you think about it,” Nadeau says. “All of these books have been used. Some of these books are even like vintage, like some were printed in the ’60s.”

By the way, although Nadeau loves print books above all, she does read ebooks, too.

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