Q: Combine Little Free Libraries and the Lincoln Highway and what have you got?
A: The Patience Oaktree Cross-Country Book Tour!
Little Free Library® —
Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization that inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges around the world. The first Little Free Library was built in 2009, and there are now more than 70,000 of them registered with the organization and branded as Little Free Libraries.
Valentina Sgro, the author of the Patience Oaktree books, is a lifelong fan of libraries and reading, and she wants to see her novels in the hands of as many people as possible.
Lincoln Highway —
The Lincoln Highway – now mostly U.S. Route 30 – was the first hard-surfaced road that went from coast to coast in the United States. It was conceived by a group of businessmen in the fledgling automotive industry who wanted to provide car owners with an incentive to take road trips. The Lincoln Highway Association was created in 1913 to promote the road using private and corporate donations.
One of the cities on the Lincoln Highway is Massillon, Ohio. Carl Cormany, the illustrator of the Patience Oaktree books, grew up in Massillon, and has long wanted to drive the entire Lincoln Highway from New York to San Francisco.
Little Free Library nearest
Val & Carl's home in
Shaker Heights, OH
Book Tour —
This year – September 8 through 12 – Carl and Val will travel their first segment of the Lincoln Highway from New York City to Massillon, Ohio. Along the way, they will stop at Little Free Libraries and deposit copies of the Patience Oaktree novels.
The planned stops are:
- September 8: Brooklyn, NY; 238 11th Street; charter #12222
- September 8: Princeton, NJ; 32 Edgehill Street; charter #15104
- September 9: York, PA; 37 North Broad Street; charter #58778
- September 10: Chambersburg, PA; 19 South Main Street; charter #45102
- September 11: Latrobe, PA; 300 Fraser Purchase Road; charter #9990
- September 12: Lisbon, OH; Village Square NE Quadrant; charter #37522
Join Us —
If you are along our route and would like us to stop at your Little Free Library, please let us know.
We would love to have you follow us on our tour via Twitter:
@valsgro
@patienceoaktree