Advertisement Leawood shuts down boy's little free library Bookcase considered illegal accessory building Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A 9-year-old Leawood boy is doing his part to promote reading, but he's hit a roadblock.Leawood city leaders have told Spencer Collins that he has to stop sharing books with his neighbors.Collins had to take down his little free library, essentially a communal bookshelf, on Wednesday. The motto of the sharing center had been "take a book, leave a book," but Collins learned there's a lot less give and take in city government.Collins loves reading. He doesn't just dive into a book -- he swims through its pages."It's kind of like I'm in a whole other world and I like that," he said. "I like adventure stories because I'm in the adventure and it's fun."When he tried to share his love for books, it started a surprisingly frustrating adventure."When we got home from vacation, there was a letter from the city of Leawood saying that it was in code violation and it needed to be down by the 19th or we would receive a citation," said Spencer's mother, Sarah Collins. Leawood said the little house is an accessory structure. The city bans buildings that aren't attached to someone's home.The family moved the little library to the garage, but Spencer Collins said he plans to take the issue up with City Hall."I would tell them why it's good for the community and why they should drop the law," he said. "I just want to talk to them about how good it is.""We empathize with them, but we still have to follow the rules," said Richard Coleman of the City of Leawood. "We need to treat everybody the same. So we can't say if somebody files a complaint but we like the little libraries -- we think they're cute -- so we ignore it. We can't do that."Leawood said it has received two complaints about Spencer Collins' library.Collins said he's trying to think outside the box, looking for ways to keep the library going within the letter of the law."I thought, why not get a rope and attach it to our house and the library?" he said.He has also set up a Facebook page for it.Several surrounding cities also have little libraries. Prairie Village told KMBC 9's Haley Harrison that the city simply doesn't enforce codes that would restrict little free libraries.