Jakaylah Reed pulled a book out of the Little Free Library at her school on Tuesday.

With so many books to choose from, why did the 9½-year-old ultimately select “The Baby Tree” by Sophie Blackall?

“I haven’t read it yet,” said the third-grader.

Now, she can.

As top readers in a school challenge, Reed and more than 40 of her fellow students at Benjamin E. Mays IB World School were in attendance on Tuesday to celebrate a ribbon-cutting event for the installation of the world’s 200,000th Little Free Library, a book-sharing box that is now housed within their school at 560 Rondo Ave. in St. Paul.

This particular box, geared exclusively for students and designed to resemble a red, one-room schoolhouse, pays homage to the original Little Free Library, which was built by the nonprofit’s late founder, Todd H. Bol, in 2009. It’s the first of 200 libraries to be granted to Title I schools across the country, with books provided by Penguin Random House, part of an effort to expand children’s access to books.

It was a proud moment for Reed and for the St. Paul-based nonprofit behind the Little Free Libraries that now span all 50 states, 128 countries and all seven continents.

‘Take a book. Share a book.’

As the children gathered in front of their Little Free Library on Tuesday, Greig Metzger, the executive director of Little Free Library, shared the story behind these miniature libraries.

The nonprofit that was born out of Bol’s library box was officially established in 2012 in Hudson, Wis., with the idea of “Take a book. Share a book.”

By sharing a book, whether you are a volunteer library steward or someone dropping off a book, you share the world — and build community along the way.

“What we believe is that everybody should have a right to find a book to read and it shouldn’t be a privilege,” Metzger told the kids. “So one of the reasons why we have boxes like Little Free Libraries all over the world — there’s even one in Antarctica, at the science station at the bottom of the Earth, the South Pole — is you should be able to find a book at any time.”

Here, they can.

“The best thing about it, each of our babies will walk home with a book,” said the school’s principal, Dr. Kenneth O. Turner Jr.

On Tuesday, the students could each choose one new book from among those that spilled out from the Little Free Library and onto long stretches of tables displaying subjects of all kinds — from puzzles (“The Hardest Hidden Pictures Book Ever“) to religion (“The Gift of Eid“) to hair (“Hair Love“) to gender (“Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope“) to favorite characters (“Bluey: Time to Play!“).

“Our mission is to create books for everyone,” said Maya Livingstone, director of brand communication and social impact for Penguin Random House, as children around her browsed the books. “We want kids to be able to see themselves in books. Little Free Library has been a wonderful partner for us in just helping us get more books into more kids’ hands.”

Bookworms

Reading is really important at Benjamin E. Mays; that’s one reason the school was chosen to be the host of the 200,000th library. It’s also needed.

“This will ensure that everyone can take books home and have access to books at home,” Assistant Principal Danielle Beck told the students.

Thanks in part to a school reading challenge, the students of Benjamin E. Mays have already logged a lot of reading minutes this academic year.

“Students at Benjamin E. Mays have checked out more books per student than any other school library in the whole St. Paul school district,” Taylor Fischer, library assistant, announced during the event.

The students who checked out the most books at this school were invited to select the first books out of the Little Free Library on Tuesday. That group included Reed, who individually has checked out the most books from the school library during the 2024-25 academic year (181 so far) and logged 800 reading minutes at home.

While she held onto her new book and drank from a juice box, Reed considered why she likes books so much.

“The details and the surprises,” she said.

Those details and surprises added up to the privilege of attending this event, which included Goldfish crackers for snacks and words of praise and inspiration from school leaders.

“Right now,” Principal Turner told the students, “you are the leaders in literacy.”

199 more to go

Following Tuesday’s inaugural launch, 199 additional Little Free Libraries will be installed at Title I elementary schools nationwide.

Title 1 refers to a federal program that “provides supplemental educational resources to ensure that all children have a fair, equitable and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education,” according to St. Paul Public Schools.

The libraries are sponsored in part by Books Unbanned, a program founded by the Brooklyn Public Library. Each library will be stocked with 200 new books, part of Penguin Random House’s donation of more than 40,000 books.

To keep celebrating the 200,000th Little Free Library milestone and the distribution of 200 book-sharing boxes and 40,000 books to Title I schools, the nonprofit is hosting a ticketed event on Thursday, March 20, at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.

More info on this event or other ways to join in are at littlefreelibrary.org/200k.