COEUR d'ALENE - The miniature house-like structures appearing atop posts in neighborhoods throughout the community do more than just store books for people to read and return.

Little Free Libraries open doors to territories of the imagination unexplored by young readers. They provide opportunities for neighbors to be neighborly and have conversations about novels or the weather.

They give literacy a boost and make finding new books as exciting as opening a box of chocolates.

"You never know what you're going to find in them," said Little Free Library patron and steward Betsy McTear of Coeur d'Alene. "It's got a lot of people talking. I think it's generated some excitement in the neighborhood."

McTear and Maxine Sullivan of Post Falls visited the site of one of the area's newest Little Free Libraries (LFLs) at the southeast corner of Fifth Street and Wallace Avenue in downtown Coeur d'Alene Wednesday morning. The LFL was installed by the Coeur d'Alene branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), of which both women are members. The group promotes advocacy, education, philanthropy and research, so sponsoring an LFL is right up its alley.

"This is something that's been cooking in our brains for a couple of years," McTear said.

LFLs are completely free for users and encourage those who utilize them to take a book and/or leave a book within the protected space of the little library. McTear worked with St. Luke Episcopal Church to place the AAUW's LFL in the landscaped corner of the church's parking lot across from the church building.

"We're really appreciative that St. Luke's let us put it on this corner," said Sullivan, who serves as the Coeur d'Alene AAUW's communications officer. "It's a busy corner. On Wednesday evenings during the farmers market, it's all parking up and down here. There's a lot of foot traffic through here, so I think it's a good location."

Inside this particular LFL were children's books such as "Wendy Loves Space" and "Groundhog's Day at the Doctor" as well as novels for teens and grownups. The little library, which was painted by AAUW president Lynn Brooks and built by her husband, David, contains two shelves that separate youth books from grownup reads, with kids' choices on the lower shelf so little hands can reach them easier.

The AAUW's LFL has been in place about a month, and McTear and Sullivan agreed that it is already seeing a lot of use.

"In fact, one woman emailed me how wonderful it was," Sullivan said. "She thought this was just the best thing that we were doing."

The LFL program is a grassroots movement that was started by LFL executive director Todd Bol in Wisconsin in 2009 and has since bloomed into a global nonprofit organization that has spawned several offshoots and the charitable GIFT (Give It Forward Team) Fund.

According to "The Little Free Library Book" by Margret Aldrich, in just one year, more than 35 million books are traded in the 25,000 LFLs around the world, with as many as 100 million visits. LFL designs are as varied as the books they contain, from the simple to elaborate. The stewards who build and maintain them in their front yards and near sidewalks have created them to be everything from miniature school houses and barns to Volkswagen buses, the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) box from "Dr. Who" and many, many more colorful, waterproof, custom creations. They all generally include little doors with see-through windows. Stewards can also choose to purchase pre-made ones that are available online.

"They're just too cute for words, they really are," Sullivan said. "That's probably what appealed to us first."

The LFL phenomenon is growing in North Idaho. Several LFL locations can be found in the 83814 ZIP code, including one on Mill Avenue, at Gizmo-CDA on Fourth Street, in Rockford Bay and the one at Fifth and Wallace. Unofficial little libraries are also sprinkled throughout the area, with the same objectives of promoting literacy and building relationships within the community.

"This was being utilized almost from day one," McTear said. "It's just amazing that people are using it."

Charter signs to make little libraries official LFL locations are about $40 and include the opportunity to register the site on the world map.

In the foreword to "The Little Free Library Book," Bol said his first observations about the magic of the LFL program still hold true.

"Humanity's sweeter side emerges when neighbors share books and ideas," he wrote. "As stronger community connections form around free book sharing, the sweeter side of our shared humanity will expand like ripples across a pond."

Info: www.littlefreelibrary.org