Pontefract teaching assistant sets up scheme to get more people reading in lockdown

An avid reader and teaching assistant has set up a book sharing scheme outside her Pontefract home where people of all ages are invited to take or leave a book.
Pontefract teaching assistant sets up scheme to get more people reading in lockdownPontefract teaching assistant sets up scheme to get more people reading in lockdown
Pontefract teaching assistant sets up scheme to get more people reading in lockdown

Anna Blight's love of reading, inspired by authors such as Terry Pratchett, Jane Austen and Rowan Coleman, helped to kick-start the initiative.

Anna said The Banks Avenue Little Free Library is part of her long term vision to get more people reading in Pontefract.

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She said: “I was inspired by seeing a Little Free library in Leeds last year outside a coffee shop - I've used it and decided to set my own up.

Pontefract teaching assistant sets up scheme to get more people reading in lockdownPontefract teaching assistant sets up scheme to get more people reading in lockdown
Pontefract teaching assistant sets up scheme to get more people reading in lockdown

“It's a world-wide initiative and I can't afford the £500 needed to set up an official one from Wakefield Little Free Libraries.

“It’s been received really well, people are dropping books off all the time.

“At the moment, it’s a few cardboard boxes outside, but a friend's dad will be making one for me as the Little Free Library website provides plans to make your own weatherproof library.

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“I'd also love more people to set them up in their gardens and businesses in town and the community.”

The Little Free Library scheme is the world’s largest book-sharing movement to encourage more people to read.

Unlike a standard library, the Little Free Libraries are about sharing the love of reading with no tracking or returns, allowing people to take books away, keep them or pass them onto friends on a local level.

Anna, who also runs Carleton Park Junior and Infant school’s book club, hopes to bring the scheme into schools, including Carleton Park and Larks Hill, who she says have already displayed an interest.

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Anna said: “I think reading is so important for children particularly because it unlocks their imagination.

“With books, they can travel anywhere, and that’s so important in lockdown.

“Reading can help them travel around the world, as well as it being a key life skill to take them through their education, it inspires and gives them higher life skills to access jobs they are truly interested in.”

As the scheme progresses, Anna hopes to encourage adults of Pontefract, who are interested in literature to come together.

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“I’ve lived around here for 15 years and I know a lot of my neighbours are enthusiastic about reading, so off the back of this I’m hoping to set up a Banks Avenue book group - I’d also like to see a book group in the town centre.”

The Banks Avenue Little Free Library can be found outside 47 Banks Avenue.

To find out more, visit the Banks Avenue Little Free Library Facebook page or to find a Little Free Library near you visit Wakefield Little Free Libraries

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