Little Libraries (2025)
Project lead: Alex Woodley
The Little Libraries Project, led by The Values Trust and supported by Point, is bringing nature-themed bookshelves and curated collections of award-winning New Zealand children’s books to ECE centres in high-deprivation communities, with a goal to reach 100,000 tamariki aged 2–5 and nurture a lifelong love of reading.
The initiative is part of a broader ecosystem to support early literacy through multiple touchpoints. This ecosystem is grounded in robust evidence, including findings from Growing Up in NZ, that infant reading is one of the few modifiable factors that significantly improves child wellbeing and school readiness.
For the evaluation, we gathered feedback from over 80 centres through surveys and interviews. The findings were clear:
73% of centres reported tamariki reading more often
53% said children were asking to be read to more
58% of staff were reading more often
1 in 5 centres saw increased whānau reading at drop-off and pick-up
We found that staff described the books and shelves as “taonga” - treasures that lifted the status of reading, even among non-readers. Children were drawn to bright covers and books featuring animals and vehicles, while wordier books were less popular. The design of the shelves made books more accessible and special, encouraging respectful treatment and shared reading
With 100 libraries delivered in 2024 and another 120 planned for 2025, the project is scaling rapidly. The evaluation is helping refine shelf design, book selection, and literacy supports for educators and whānau.
“You are helping grow little bookworms - one book at a time”