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“Reading is Fundamental.”

For those of us of a certain age, that slogan brings back childhood memories of weekend educational TV and the public service announcement that routinely reminded us of the value of books and the importance of reading.

Educational experts knew that many children lived in homes without books or regular access to them. And though the slogan and the nonprofit organization of the same name came to be in 1966, its mission is just as important and relevant today as it was then.

While school systems and public libraries have taken on much of the responsibility of making sure toddlers, children and teens have access to books, many private nonprofits have taken on the mission as well. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been in the news quite a bit since her death and for good reason — more than 300 million free books have been distributed to children all over the world through its efforts.

Another successful movement involves small box libraries — usually simple wooden or plastic containers perched atop posts that are filled with free books provided by each site’s steward and other volunteer donors. Inspired by the Little Free Library organization, these miniature libraries have popped up in private yards, public parks, church yards and other neighborhood-oriented spaces across the country.

As a prime local example, I point you to what I consider the penthouse of little libraries — The Library on Searles in Dundalk. What started as a small, one-box repository on a post at the edge of stewardess Sara’s Searles Road front yard has morphed into a three-room mansion, complete with an attached trinket “garage.” That’s impressive growth for the little library that made its debut just four months ago.

The newly renovated Library on Searles.
Photo: Library on Searles Facebook page

The original box was adequate until it wasn’t, Sara told me in a recent phone interview. The box held quite a few books, but there wasn’t a sense of organization. All sorts of books were stuffed on the shelves and folks had to dig through all the titles to find something they were interested in, she said.

“Through growth and traction as more people found us, I discovered it was tough for people digging through, looking for age-appropriate books,” she said. “And teens would come and say, ‘There’s nothing here for us,’ and I felt bad.”

She realized she had many offerings for young children and adults, but the selection for teens was indeed lacking. That thought gave her the idea to redesign and rebuild the library, with different “rooms” for different age groups. The resulting “penthouse” has individual boxes for children, teens and adults, with a smaller attached cabinet for little trinkets, stickers and toys. To complete the philosophy of inclusiveness, a water bowl for four-legged visitors sits at the base.

Sara started the little library almost as a necessity, she said. The mother of two, who admittedly is a voracious reader, realized her own collection was getting out of control and could stand to be pruned a bit.

“I didn’t want to sell them and I didn’t want to donate them to an organization that would sell them for profit,” she said of her surplus books. “I’d much rather give them away.”

And so the Library on Searles was born. The first iteration was a kit from Amazon that she bought and assembled. For the upgrade, her husband Josh build a new base and Sara assembled and attached the additional boxes.

“The hardest part was probably getting it level and solid,” she said with a laugh. “If there was the slightest lean forward, the books would fall out when the door was opened.”

The renovated library seems to be working well, she said. She estimates the entire unit can hold well over one hundred books and maybe more, given the thinness of many children’s books and graphic novels.

The Library on Searles has developed quite a following, thanks in part to a well-maintained social media presence. Sara devotes considerable time to her pet project, she admitted. She starts each day with a morning visit to the library to unlock it (it gets locked up each night). She straightens and organizes, and adds books if needed. She keeps folks up to date with regular posts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Just this week, Sara received an email from Little Free Library informing her that her labor of love has been showered with love of its own. The LFL app had more than 425,000 users in 2025, according to the email. The missive shared a list of the "10 most-favorited book-sharing boxes of the last 30 days" and the Searles Road unit was fifth on the national list that includes libraries in Utah, New York, Texas, California and Florida.

Sara said she routinely gets notes and online comments thanking her for her efforts, which means a lot, she said. She and her husband have made a considerable financial investment in the project, in addition to their time and personal in-kind donations.

"It feels good to know it's appreciated and it fills a need," Sara said. 

She celebrated the renovations with online announcements and is currently running a giveaway contest with a basket of donated goodies going to the winner. Details are available on the Library of Searles Facebook page. She routinely posts photos of the library and the nearby drop box, and she introduced herself by way of a video.

A dropbox for donations sits near the library to make it easy for folks to leave books and items for the trinket box. Sara spends considerable time on donated items, making sure all books are in good condition and do not have any mold or mildew.

“I also freeze all donated books to make sure any bugs that might be present are killed,” she said. “I have one whole freezer that has nothing but books in it.”

She laughed as she said her husband is less than thrilled about an entire freezer being devoted to books but said he whole-heartedly supports the effort.

Drop box at the Library on Searles.
Photo: Facebook

The little library, though just four months old, is steeped in history and stands as a monument to the legacy of her grandparents, who previously owned the home that they bought new in the 1950s.

“My Grandpa worked at Bethlehem Steel and always believed in being involved in the community,” Sara said. “He grew tomatoes and was known for giving them to the neighbors. And my grandmother watched kids for other people so they could go to work. The two of them would do anything they could for others.”

Sara spent considerable time in the home when she was growing up, and then became a neighbor when Sara’s mother bought the house next door. After the death of her grandparents, she jumped on the opportunity to buy it.

“They loved living here and so do I,” Sara said. “They always emphasized serving the community and I wish they were here to see the sense of community this is creating. They would love it.”

If You Go:

Library on Searles, 2355 Searles Road, Dundalk, MD 21222

Please be respectful of the library and area neighbors!

To Donate:

Donations of books and small toys and item for the trinket box are appreciated. A drop box is adjacent to the library.

Follow on Social:

Facebook: Library on Searles

Instagram: libraryonsearles

TikTok: libraryonsearles

Get out your decoder rings!

I read with great pleasure a recent Baltimore Banner article about the rebirth of cursive writing instruction in several local school systems.

Across the nation, cursive instruction was sacrificed, beginning around 2010, as Common Core curriculum standards were implemented.The purpose of Common Core was to standardize instruction so a fourth-grader in California was learning the same content at the same pace as fourth-graders in Texas or Alabama or Maine. According to theory, a child whose family moved across the country could be seamlessly plunked down in a new school and pick up right where she left off at her old school.

But somewhere along the line, with a school day packed full of required academic elements to satisfy those new standards, cursive writing was kicked out of many school districts.

I remember being sad for future generations when cursive disappeared. I was the education reporter for a daily newspaper when Common Core was implemented, so I followed it closely as it pertained to the local school system. 

My memories of my earliest cursive instruction are wonderful. One of the most exciting things about entering second grade was the knowledge that cursive writing was on the agenda. I had a terrific teacher that year — Miss Anna Nistico at Mars Estates Elementary — and she was both talented and patient as she led her latest group of 7-year-olds through the loops and curly-Qs and tails of cursive. We first learned each individual letter of the alphabet, filling entire sheets of paper with just one letter, carefully practiced over and over again. After we mastered the entire alphabet, we learned how to loop those individual letters together to form words.

We wrote on rough, rather pulpy, lumpy light beige, almost gray paper that had two solid lines split in half with a dotted line, which created one lane for writing. The guides were there to show sizing for upper and lower case letters. Because the paper quality wasn’t great, the over-zealous erasing by inexperienced pencil-holders could result in a hole. To that end, Miss Nistico had a few rules: If we made a mistake, we were not to erase, attempt to write over the error or scribble it out. We were to draw a single line through our mistake and move on.

It was a wonderful day when a paper came back with a gold star or when extra careful penmanship elicited a compliment from the teacher we all adored.

I am more than 60 years removed from that classroom, and can still smell that paper, still feel the awkwardness of the fat pencils we used, and still revel in the thrill of mastering a new letter as we progressed through the alphabet.

Over the remaining years of public school, I took great pride in having good handwriting and worked to develop my own style. In high school, I dropped a lot of the curly-Qs on some upper case letters and I customized my lower case Rs because I was never happy with my rendition of the formal, “approved” style.

In college, for speed purposes, I developed a hybrid style of cursive/manuscript for note-taking but always used my formal style for assignments to be turned in.

I have always loved doodling and never met a pen I didn’t like. Somewhere along the line, I bought an instructional book and specialized pens and taught myself calligraphy. Today, most of my handwriting is confined to mailing cards and making lists but I still love the physical act of writing.  And I’m convinced my penmanship is terrific with certain pens and crappy with others, although I also admit that a 20-year journalism career destroyed my handwriting.

So it is those fond 60-year-old memories that made me sad when I heard that most schools had eliminated cursive, and made me happy to know that, as I witness the resurgence of what I consider an art form, future generations will build those same memories.

According to the Banner article, Baltimore and Harford counties are both reintroducing cursive to all second- and third-grade classes. Baltimore County’s move follows its pilot program held last year at 24 schools.

“Educators and researchers who embrace cursive say the skill can help students’ motor skills, improve their writing’s legibility and even help them better retain what they’re learning,” the article by reporter Kristin Griffith stated.

Much has been made in recent years — perhaps decades now — of the perceived inability of youngsters to communicate verbally or in written form because of the increased time spent on screens and the impersonal, casual, abbreviation-laden communication of text messages, email and social media. I personally have worked with younger colleagues who would rather die than pick up a phone and talk to someone in person. They depended on email before texting was prevalent, and I would imagine the ubiquitous presence of smart phones has exasperated that situation. Couple that with folks who can’t write in a fast, efficient manner and you have a communications disaster waiting to happen. It’s more bizarre when communicating is the job.

So this doodler is very happy that cursive is making a comeback and I hope there are many gold stars in the future for this year’s second-graders.

Thanks for reading and feel free to critique my handwriting!