'Little Free Library' Brings Books To Neighbors During Pandemic

CARTERSVILLE, GA — When Samantha Ellis and her husband Joshua built their “Little Free Library” — a book-exchange box in front of their house in Bramblewood Estates — she thought her two children would love it.

“I think reading is extremely important,” Ellis said. “With everything that’s going on, the kids don’t have access to books. That’s what made me want to do this.”

It turned out the adults liked it too.

After building the box Sunday from office shelves, leftover shingles and an antique chair with its seat knocked out, Ellis seeded the box with a few children’s books and a few cookbooks. She posted a picture of it on Cartersville Patch a few days later.

“We just got home from doing some errands,” Ellis said Thursday “and it looks like we have five new books.” Among them were novels by Tom Clancy, James Rollins and James Patterson. “Some of these are stuff my husband reads,” she said.

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Husband Joshua, who works for Georgia Power at Plant Bowen, is the reason the Ellises moved to Cartersville a few years ago. Her mother in law has since moved to Cartersville as well to be near family. Ellis describes her as a “huge book reader” and part of her inspiration for building the Little Free Library.

Also, she and her husband had run out of home-improvement projects since the pandemic started. The trees were trimmed, the garden was growing … so why not make a little library? Ellis said it took a whole day to build it.

Ellis herself can’t read as much as she’d like to — she’s a stay-at-home mom with two kids — but she still manages to finish a book or two a month. Her favorites: cookbooks, biographies and audio books. She said she’s looking forward to seeing what else might turn up at the Little Free Library.

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