Parents, children and visitors to Hopetoun Primary School are invited to leave their unwanted books at a free book exchange at the school front entrance, and to help themselves to another.
Earlier this year artist and Hopetoun newcomer Francine Preston built the colourful sheltered rack at the local Men in Sheds who then helped her install it.
It has a clock to help kids learn to tell the time, and solar powered lights come on at night.
“It was actually a collaboration with the kids in the 3-4 class, teachers Georgia Smith and Hebra Hannis approached the Men’s Shed and Darryl directed it to me,” Preston said.
“I used the concept the kids waited to incorporate in their libraries, from their designs.
“They wanted a clock and they wanted fairy lights.”
She described the project as a “real collaborative effort for the Men in Sheds.
“One guy built the stand and the kids came in to see how to assemble it,” she said.
“Every kid got to screw one screw in with the cordless drill so they had a nice little morning at the club.
“Jim build the stand and another member supplied the wood from his shed, he had the marine ply lying around.
“The Men in Sheds supplied all the paint and Brian entertained all the kids when they came in.
“Colin Hughes cemented the little library into the ground.”
It has proven such a hit that Ravensthorpe Shire followed suit, recently installing new book exchange boxes at five popular locations.
Readers can take any books they fancy, and they can also donate books to the exchange boxes.
Staff said the boxes were already filling up with a wide variety of books from modern novels to history and reference books.
“Thank you to avid reader Madeleine Norman, who suggested the idea to us,” a Shire representative said.
“Thanks also to the Hopetoun Men in Sheds and members of our own team, who carried out the work.”
She said the boxes had been placed at places chosen to be handy to residents as well as visitors.
These are near the RV sites at Munglinup, Ravensthorpe and Fitzgerald; at the Shire’s campground at Hamersley Inlet; and in the beach shelter at Hopetoun.
