City Forces 9-Year-Old Boy to Move “Little Free Library” From Front Yard

• Olivia B. Waxman - Time - June 20, 2014

It violates a city code that bans detached structures

City officials in Kansas shut down a “little free library” that a boy set up in his front yard because it violates city code, and the family is fighting the decision.

Spencer Collins, 9, set up “Spencer’s Little Free Library” in Leawood, Kansas, so neighbors could “take a book, leave a book.” As he told FOX 4 News, “Reading is one of my favorite things to do. We built it on Mother’s Day as a present for my mom because she really wanted one.”

City code prohibits detached structures, so the family moved it earlier this week — reportedly to the garage — and set up a Facebook page Thursday to solicit support for petitioning the city to amend its code. By publication time, it boasted more than 1,000 fans nationwide and counting.

Spencer’s Little Free Library is part of a movement to promote literacy and lifelong learning that claims to boast about 15,000 of these homemade libraries nationwide.