Couple’s “crooked” free library brings unexpected unity to the neighborhood

By Athena Kehoe

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    TUCSON, Arizona (KGUN) — What started as a small project in a midtown front yard has turned into an unexpected way for neighbors to connect.

Seven years ago, the McKiernans set up a homemade wooden box on their lawn in Tucson’s Dodge Flower neighborhood. At first, they didn’t expect a lot of engagement.

“I just think it’s what neighborhoods should be, like we can walk around the neighborhood and we’d know quite a few people,” Maggie McKiernan explains.

The couple recently gave their little library a facelift, but the new door didn’t quite line up, leading to a nickname that stuck.

“Recently kind of redid it because the door was all crooked, so that’s why we called it that!” Maggie said with a laugh.

Since putting it up, they’ve seen neighbors drop by regularly, sometimes to take a book, sometimes to leave one, and sometimes to leave something else entirely.

“One person, I haven’t discovered who it was, was leaving these beautiful little notes in there,” Maggie says. “Little books with drawings in them. I have no idea who it was. It was really beautiful.”

The McKiernans say their original motivation came from a sense that the Dodge Flower area was too often dismissed or criticized. They wanted to change that.

“We thought it would get vandalized. And it hasn’t, not at all,” Maggie explains.

They saw the box as a way to bring people together.

“I think we’ve got to reach out to the potential in everybody,” Maggie says, “There are adults who may not have ever read as adults… This might give them the chance to go, ‘Oh, I would like to look at a few books.’”

Even when all the books occasionally disappear at once, Maggie isn’t quick to judge.

“You’re like okay, why did they do that… but if they needed them, then what’re they gonna do? You know, it’s not worth selling them,” she says.

The little library isn’t affiliated with the national Little Free Library nonprofit.

Over time, it’s evolved. Neighbors have started leaving more than books: children’s toys, small items of clothing, even thoughtful notes.

The McKiernans say they’ll keep it going as long as people keep using it. And they hope others might do the same.

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