Rick Brooks

Last week, the first 24-hour library vending machine in the United States was opened in Norman Oklahoma. Lacking the necessary funds to open new libraries, The Pioneer Library System decided that this was the best way to provide library services to people in an area without a nearby library branch. These types of machines have become popular in China, particularly in small cities and towns lacking branch libraries. 

There's only one thing that comes between the grade school kids hopping off the afternoon bus near Eve Pulver-Johnson's Aurora house and their after-school snacks - the Little Free Library on her family's front lawn. The children like to take an extra minute near the stop to peek inside the free-standing blue and white box full of books, some of them grabbing a book to go. Who knows? Maybe somebody put one of Mo Willems' popular children's stories in there.