Meigan’s kitchen scale thought the coin weighed four grams, which-if it was actually gold-was over $100 worth of gold. There was an image of a bird with spread wings stamped into one side the other showed either a candelabra or a rib cage, Meigan wasn’t sure. The gold coin was a tiny disk, the size of a dime but thinner. It you can bring me more such books, I will leave you every scrap of gold I can find. I believed our cause to be lost I believed that I would never have the opportunity to avenge what was done to my family now, suddenly, I have been gifted with a way forward. I do not know what I did to deserve the favor of the Gods, but I am grateful, so grateful, for your kindness to me. Then (spoiler), Meigan leaves out a book titled Defending Your Castle:Īnd a day later, a tiny, glinting gold coin was left behind, with another letter. Simultaneous with this the mysterious borrower starts leaving notes (asking if there is a sequel to The Fellowship of the Ring, apologising for the day they took all the books, etc.), and a correspondence develops between the two. This object is the first of a series of (increasingly otherworldly) items that are left in exchange for the Meigan’s books: strangely coloured feathers, a green leaf (in February) that looks like a Maple but isn’t, a “carved stone animal too abstract to identify”, etc. Then, at the end of the same day, she notices that on this occasion only one book has been taken but, rather than leaving a book in exchange, there is a hand-carved whistle on top of the shelves. Meigan leaves a note to the person concerned pointing out what the rules are.

For a short while things proceed as expected, until one day she notices all the books have gone. She puts her unwanted books in it and leaves instructions to “take a book, return a book”. Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com, April 8 th, 2020) 1 begins with Meigan building a “Little Free Library” and mounting it on a post outside her house.

Little free library naomi kritzer