About W.H.O. Books
“When this movement started, I was looking into diverse children's books and books about social justice. I was blown away with how much I have to learn, as well as change my own thinking. I saw this as an opportunity to educate myself, along with my family, and felt that we had the ability to share that education with our community. I would love to help children and families be exposed to more diverse books and for more topics to become ‘normalized,’ such as race and racial awareness, diversity, equity, climate justice, mental health, differently abled humans, and gender identity to name a few.
As an elementary teacher, I've always had a plethora of children's books in our house, which led to routine visits with my own kids to add more children's literature to little free libraries. We noticed that the majority of little libraries are lacking in books for younger kids. With this movement, we thought Little Free Libraries were a perfect place to share our diverse book titles with others.
WHO doesn't love a good book!?”
~ Beth Fogarty, Founder of W.H.O. Books Inc.
This movement started after the death of George Floyd.
Our family knew we could do something more to help spread love and positivity,
along with racial justice awareness.
The name W.H.O. came from the initials of our 3 oldest children, Wilhemina
(“Willa”), Hazel, and Oscar. Thinking of their futures in mind and wanting to
continue educating them with more diversity, equity, and acceptance in mind.
We have since added Leo to our family and his "L" stands for the LOVE we want
to share in our community through books.
Our movement would not be possible without the generous donations
and sponsors in our lives and community.
Our mission has been to purchase children's through YA literature that
represent more diverse characters, authors, and illustrators. While
bringing more issues to the forefront with this literature, we also hope to
expose people to the significant truths of our world and the brilliant humans
how create positive change and beautiful things.
We spread these books around our Hudson (and surrounding), WI community Little Free Libraries & Free Little Libraries, as well as collaborate with local organizations to provide these titles at community events.
Adding books to Little Free Libraries
Collections of books gathered for events
Books & Benches Collaboration