Little library for swapping children's books set up at St Cuthbert's Church in Blyth thanks to mum and her two children

Lee Cassidy, 41, decided to help her nine-year-old son Harrison Handley and four-year-old daughter Marlowe Handley to build the library box by recycling old furniture, in order to make reading free and fun.

The little library is located at St Cuthbert’s Church on Wellington Street, where anyone can exchange a book they have already read with a different one from the shelf.

Lee said: “We started having a bit of a Google and we saw in America there are lots of little libraries that people are doing.

“We thought that would be a lovely idea for our local area for children.”

According to a National Literacy Trust report published in September 2022, 18.6% of children aged five to eight, nearly one in five, do not have a book of their own at home.

It was after hearing this statistic that Harrison suggested to his mum that they do something to address this, and the idea for the library was born.

Lee said: “I am extremely proud, and trying to help facilitate him doing it.

“We discuss ideas, and what we have been trying to do is find environmentally conscious ways of doing them.”

The family are looking for location suggestions for more little libraries in order to create a trail throughout Blyth.

With help from Blyth Man Shed, where Lee is a member, Alice in Wonderland and Wednesday Adams-themed libraries will be the next ones set up.

She is also hoping others create little libraries of their own that can be added to the trail.

Lee said: “That is a long term goal, we will just have to see how it all works out.

“This has just started from an idea and we are just taking it step by step, because I have never done anything like this before and obviously neither has my son.

She added: “It is a very simple idea, it is just to bring the community together and to help kids have access to these kinds of things.

“It is all lessons for my children as well, so they benefit too.”