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Saanich author donates trailer load of children’s books to little free libraries across CRD

Books to be found are Perfect Man, Hat Cat and Little Red Reading Hood and the Misread Wolf
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Troy Wilson is a local Saanich author who donated a bike trailer full of his children’s books to Victoria Placemaking Society. (Photo courtesy of Teale Phelps Bondaroff)

Storytime is being brought to life all around the district thanks to a generous Saanich children’s book author.

Troy Wilson donated a bike trailer full of autographed copies of three of his imaginative books to Victoria Placemaking Society’s little free libraries – a take-a-book, leave-a-book model.

Wilson’s picture books that can now be found at the mini-libraries across the district are Perfect Man, Hat Cat and Little Red Reading Hood and the Misread Wolf.

“The initial impetus was to go far beyond where I could go to put my books in little free libraries,” he said. “… I fell in love with picture books over time – initially I was writing all kinds of shorter and smaller pieces – among those smaller things was something that turned out to be a picture book and then over time all of the other forms of writing fell away and what I remained devoted to were the picture books.”

Wilson said that one of his favourite parts of writing is the collaborations he has had with the illustrators as he watches how his words are brought to life by another’s imagery and interpretation of his words.

Since 2017, the Victoria Placemaking Society has been promoting, mapping, stocking, and building little free libraries around the CRD through the Pocket Places Project. To date, over 60,000 books have been delivered by bike trailers.

“There are now over 600 little free libraries in the CRD and there never seem to be enough children’s books to fill them. It’s fantastic that the Pocket Places Project can help top up local little free libraries with children’s books and share the fantastic work of a local Saanich author,” said Teale Phelps Bondaroff, board member of the Greater Victoria Placemaking Network.

Visit troystory.ca to learn more about the author.

ALSO READ: Strawberry Vale Elementary students restore native species garden in Saanich for Earth Week


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