Student Giving Spotlight

As we wrap up National Reading Month we want to shine a spotlight on Palo Alto 5th grade student Arjun Argawal. Arjun has made it his mission to build Free Little Libraries in his local community as a way to share his love of reading and books. Last summer during the pandemic, Arjun built his first free library by hand and set it up in his own neighborhood. It quickly proved to be a popular resource, with children and books frequently coming and going in his front yard.

To further his outreach, Arjun also wrote and illustrated his own book titled Where is the Little Dinosaur, a fun spot-the-hidden-dinosaur book that he published online and printed copies to give away in his free library. His new book was partly inspired by his love of Calvin and Hobbes and is dedicated to his sister, Aashi, who encouraged him to write it. The book is also available for free download on the website that he created to talk about his project and raise money to fund the building of additional neighborhood libraries.

An avid reader, Arjun’s favorite books are the Percy Jackson series and Harry Potter. Arjun believes that “every kid in the world should have access to the gift of reading.” We, at Stratford, could not agree more and have been inspired by Arjun’s action to make books more accessible to children in his own community. As a way to take part, Stratford hosted a SuperBowl football pool and donated part of the proceeds to help fund Arjun’s future library projects and buy more books to populate them.

To read Where is the Little Dinosaur or contribute to Arjun’s next library building project, visit https://letsread.fun. We look forward to watching Arjun’s free little roadside library franchise continue to grow. 

Kudos to you, Arjun!