Woman Builds Home Library with 33,000 Children’s Books to Share Love of Reading

Bonnie Anderson, a big fan of children’s picture books, keeps her collection of them in the library’s loft. Annie Holmquist

“When I have a little money, I buy books,” Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus once famously said.

Erasmus would likely find a kindred spirit in Bonnie Anderson, a former classroom teacher and homeschool consultant from Minnesota. Only he might be slightly jealous. That’s because Mrs. Anderson’s current book collection stands around 33,000 volumes of children’s literature, a number so large that she and her husband John added a library to their home just to store them.

Background: Growing a Love for Books

The fact that Mrs. Anderson even enjoys reading is a bit of a miracle in itself, for as a child, she struggled with dyslexia. A loving and diligent parent, however, was one element that helped Mrs. Anderson overcome this hurdle. “My mom promoted reading a lot,” she said, noting that her mother often took her to story time at the small library in their Northwest Iowa town.

These early seeds of reading exploded when Mrs. Anderson took a college course on children’s literature. “I had a professor who was … probably almost 90 years old … who taught all the way back to the beginning of the century on children’s books,” she said. “I just took down everything!”

Mrs. Anderson’s penchant for book collecting began when she married Mr. Anderson and they started a family. Joining various book clubs, she bought paperback books for her boys, but she soon moved toward purchasing hardcover ones due to their durability. Today, she collects many old works of children’s historical fiction.

Building a Home Library

In the late 1990s, Mrs. Anderson’s collection had grown so large that the couple decided to add on to their house. It really started with Mr. Anderson’s desire for a woodworking shop, Mrs. Anderson was quick to note, and since she wanted him to be somewhat close by instead of outside in the shop all the time, they decided to add both a shop and a library.

“Our new addition was 84 feet from the road,” Mr. Anderson explained, but zoning restrictions required additions to be 90 feet, so the Andersons went to the city council for an exemption. When the council finally took up their case, one member said, “I see here they’re going to put a library in. Well, I say anybody who wants to put a library in their house, we let ‘em!”

The library’s sitting room waits for readers to come and enjoy its comfy atmosphere. Annie Holmquist

A largely self-taught woodworker, Mr. Anderson did much of the work himself, spending roughly 10 years getting the bulk of the work done. “One of the real reasons that many woodworkers like to work with wood is so they can buy more tools!” he laughed, admitting that he bought a number of them to build the library and sitting room, complete with a staircase going up to a sleeping loft where more books reside. “I can’t remember which space is bigger,” Mr. Anderson said with mock forgetfulness, “Bonnie’s library or my shop.”

One of the unique features of their library is the secret bookcase door in the loft, which swings open to reveal a small bathroom. “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Mr. Anderson said, noting that the angle, thickness, and weight of the swinging bookcase were some of his biggest challenges. “He said, ‘Do you want real books in there, Bonnie?’” Mrs. Anderson recounted. “‘Yeah, I want real books.’”

Buying the Best Books

The swinging bookcase is a favorite of those who come to look at Mrs. Anderson’s library. A homeschool consultant for almost 40 years, Mrs. Anderson offers the use of her library to the families she serves. “Only one [book] in the whole time I’ve done this … has been lost, and that child went ahead, earned the money, and replaced it,” she said, proudly adding, “That’s the kind of families I have.”

Mrs. Anderson demonstrates the swinging bookcase door in her library’s loft. Annie Holmquist

Her shelves largely contain American historical fiction and nonfiction, although she also has a section focused on Western civilization. Mrs. Anderson arranged these in chronological order from 1620 to the Space Age to help children put people and events in their historical contexts. She likes to use these as a supplement to any history textbooks families might be using. “I like to have one for the younger child, one for the middle child, and one even for a high school student or mom or dad. Then, at the dinner table they share what they learned about.”

“There’s so many good things about historical fiction,” she explained. “If you’re just reading facts, you’re not getting any feelings or emotions that [are] really happening in the lives of whomever you’re reading about.”

Mrs. Anderson pulls some of those sensory feelings out of her books by tasteful decorations interspersed in her library, incorporating stuffed animals, figurines, and other memorabilia related to the various segments of history between the covers of her books. “I just think that they add to having an interesting library,” she said.

Her love of visuals also led her to create a historical booklist timeline, with pictures of her recommended books lining the years as they march through history. She sells this in her little home shop, along with duplicate copies of the books she owns in her personal library. Since many of her recommended books are older works, she often haunts thrift stores and garage sales—even while traveling—to find the hidden gems that are no longer in print so that today’s families can enjoy them.

A hidden door lies within the bookcase. Annie Holmquist

She admitted, however, that it’s increasingly difficult to find the good old books, especially since many libraries are throwing them out. As such, she suggests families go to the library and use the interlibrary loan service. “If you do that and you request a book, that book is going to be saved instead of thrown out,” she said, “because … you are circulating those old books.”

When out on the hunt for old books, Mrs. Anderson gets especially excited when she finds a book by Genevieve Foster. She also recommends books by the D’Aulaires and Lois Lenski. “‘Childhood of Famous Americans’ [is a series] I believe in solidly,” she said, noting that “the old ones are the very, very best, the ones that have … a glossary and a timeline and other books you might like to read.”

Mrs. Anderson intends to sell her library one day, insisting it will all go in one piece to one lucky person. Some potential buyers are already on a short list. Until then, however, she and Mr. Anderson invite others to enjoy it, encouraging people to contact them at [email protected] to either take a tour of their library, pick up a booklist timeline, or peruse their used bookstore.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.