Little Libraries

It takes a community to grow our next generation of readers. 🌳 📚

We're so grateful to Love your Library NZ and the incredible librarians across Aotearoa who are helping Little Libraries recipients connect with their local library, story time and free resources. When early learning services and public libraries work together, our youngest tamariki have even more opportunities to discover the joy of reading. 💚

A huge thank you to everyone involved in making these local connections happen.

Read more about the collaboration here: https://loveyourlibrary.org.nz/libraries-in-action/library-stories/little-libraries-programme-helps-public-libraries-grow-young-bookworms

“If I'm remembered 100 years from now, I hope it will be not for looks but for books.” - Dolly Parton

Remembering the incomparable Dolly Parton and the extraordinary legacy she leaves behind through her beloved Imagination Library. More than 300 million books gifted to children from birth to age five, along with all the joy, possibility and wonder that comes with them.

Thank you Dolly for inspiring generations of readers, dreamers and storytellers! And for showing the world just how powerful it can be to put a book in the hands of a child 💚📚😍

Little book forests are growing all around Aotearoa. 🌳📚 Lovely to see this year's recipients of Little Libraries arriving, being set up and enjoyed!

We would love to give Tesh and Mai from Little Libraries a big ngā mihi nui for their generous donation of the beautiful literacy kitset to Tuakau Kindergarten. Our tamariki have absolutely loved exploring the new shelves and discovering the awesome New Zealand pukapuka (books) included. The resources have created more wonderful opportunities for our tamariki to develop their love of pukapuka, storytelling and learning together. Ngā mihi nui ki a kōrua for your aroha and support.

The little team at Little Libraries has been working on something special behind the scenes with Tanya Batt ✨

Last year, many kaiako told us they’d love more PLD around early literacy. We were lucky enough to have Tanya facilitate beautiful, engaging workshops across the motu. We got an incredible response from those who were able to attend.

Now, we’re making some of those ideas and inspirations even more accessible!

We just wrapped filming a series of short videos with Tanya, designed to help kaiako feel more confident using their Little Library as a storytelling and literacy tool. Expect simple, practical ideas, playful prompts and real examples of what storytelling can look like in practice with tamariki.

We can’t wait to share them with you soon on www.littlelibraries.co.nz 🥳

In the meantime, we’d love to hear favourite way to engage tamariki in reading and stories 💚📚