MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Although local resident Emily Frazier now knows how important a good book can be, the GMC student has not always been as diligent about reading as she would have liked. 

Like most American kids, Frazier learned and loved to read at an early age. As the years went on, however, her love for reading gained competition from a host of new endeavors — school, band, Girl Scouts and new friends taking up her time. While the busy lifestyle of modern-day America presents a challenge for anyone wishing to experience the world through books, Frazier is determined to help local residents get in the habit. 

“When kids first learn to read around the first grade, they love reading and then they grow apart from it,” she said. “That’s kind of sad because I grew apart from reading, too, and I wish I hadn’t. … I wanted to put [something] out here for kids who aren’t as fortunate as others and kids whose parents get home from work late and can’t take them to the library. I wanted to make something that was good for both teenagers and kids, so I thought ‘Why not books?’”

As a nine-year Girl Scout in Milledgeville’s Troop 60148 and a recipient of the Girl Scouts’ Bronze Award, for the past few years, Frazier has sat in on her mother’s Midway Hills Primary class reading books with her mother’s students. When Frazier began thinking about possible projects for her Silver Award, she knew she wanted to make something involving books. With an early plan for providing books to the community but without a proper receptacle to keep them, Frazier’s mother reached out to an acquaintance at the Baldwin Bulletin for help. 

“I talked to Matt [Smith] with Smith Communications, who’s a super nice guy, and he talked with his wife, who used to be a special ed teacher at Blandy,” said Frazier’s mother and Girl Scout Troop Leader Angela Madden. “It was one of those small-town things where Matt said ‘Hey, I know you!’, and he brought [a newspaper box] right to my house. He replaced the door so that it wouldn’t slam closed on a child’s arm and made it easy to open.”

In the past several weeks, visitors to Milledgeville’s Huley Park may have noticed a small box with several books behind a plastic window. The box is Frazier’s Little Free Library, which she has stocked with books free to the community. While the initial batch of books taken from Frazier and her sister, Leah’s collection are now mostly gone, the Girl Scout family has undertaken a community-wide campaign to keep the box stocked with new literature.

“The first two boxes were some of [our] old books, and some old books from [Madden] and other teacher’s classrooms,” said Frazier. “When we posted it on Facebook, people commented saying they had books that we could use, and we’ve been getting a lot of donations from people who like the idea.”

“A lot of our extended family have been very proud of her and showing people [the library],” said Leah. “Word is spreading because of the publicity we’ve been getting.”

With the help of friends, relatives, and perfect strangers, Frazier has kept the box fully stocked with books from every genre. On a Wednesday morning visit to Huley Park, the box contained everything from children’s classics like Harry Potter and Ralph S. Mouse to higher-level books like a guide to Greek mythology. Rather than stocking books aimed predominantly at younger readers, Frazier said she hopes to fill the box with books that appeal to all ages in an effort to get as many people as possible involved. With several dozen books already having been taken from Huley Park, the library’s creator expressed excitement at her project’s popularity. 

“I’m very happy with how the library has turned out so far,” said Frazier. “I enjoy little kids reading because they always try very hard – because they’re just learning, they always want to read, and read to somebody so they can say ‘Look what I can do!’. When I see people taking books from the library, I get very excited because somebody now has a book that didn’t have one before.”