The Little Red Schoolhouse Book Sale

Throughout the summer, parents often strive to keep children’s minds fresh and their education ongoing by encouraging them to read good books. And here in Hernando County, the Little Red Schoolhouse Bookstore aims to put more books in the hands of more kids—and adults—through a massive storewide sale.

The Little Red Schoolhouse Bookstore, 1208 Kenlake Ave, Spring Hill, is operated by the volunteers of the Friends of the Hernando County Public Library System. All sales benefit the Hernando County Library system and its programs. Currently, the store is hosting a wide-scale book sale.

The Friends of the Library of Hernando County, FL, Inc. is an organization singularly dedicated to advocacy and fundraising for the library. Their used bookstore, operated by volunteers, combined with membership fees and community gifts, enables and empowers them to provide major monetary contributions for library services and special programs.

Money raised by the Friends (https://hernandocountylibrary.us/fol/) offsets the costs of programs, classes, and other special events and services that benefit the community and library staff and patrons.

The Friends recently sponsored public programs, including Special Performers for Children’s Summer Reading Program, Florida Library Youth Program, special library events, such as the Live Jazz Program and Movie Programs, Partnership funding for Branch Programs, and outreach events.

In addition, its bookstore directly serves patrons through a fund-raising arm that takes the whimsical form of a shop like a schoolhouse, providing many good and affordable reads for community members of all ages and interests. Now, the fund-raising bookshop offers a sale that offers deep discounts on many of these reads.

“We are having a Teacher/Parent Children’s book sale, $1 for a bag of books—which includes homeschooling book),” said Gary Van Dusen, vice president of the Hernando County Library System Friends of the Library. “In our Reading Room Special. All books with a price tag will be $3 a bag. The Fiction (in the reading room) is $5 a bag!”

In Van Dusen’s view, the schoolhouse supports and supplements the services provided by the Hernando library system. “Our libraries do such a great job of putting books in people’s hands,” he said. “We support them with our proceeds and by getting more books into people’s hands.”

The Little Red Schoolhouse reveals Van Dusen, who has always played an integral role in the library system. “The schoolhouse never was a schoolhouse,” he explained. “The building started out as a branch of the library system. Now, it is a bookstore that supports the libraries.”

Through its current sales, Van Dusen hopes that the schoolhouse will support and enhance the summer reading endeavors of local schools and families—and to significant effect.

“We have boxes and boxes of books,” he said. “We host this sale every year—and we have so many good reads this year. This sale will be running for some time.”