When community activist Greg Rasheed first heard about tiny libraries popping up in front yards across America, he wanted to spark the trend in Denver.

He bought a bread box at Goodwill, filled it with books, put it in the front yard of his North City Park home and waited for folks to partake of his Little Free Library.

“At first I thought, ‘Nobody is going to do this,’ ” he said. “People are caught up in video games or tablets or smartphones.”

But sanitation workers jumped off trash tracks to grab a book or put one back, he said, as did construction workers repairing nearby streets and “little children happy to get some books.”

“I was surprised that people were actually taking books out and putting stuff in there. I’m glad it’s booming,” he said. “People love to read.”

These hyperlocal libraries are often colorful and artistic. Some look like doll houses, others are tiny reproductions of local landmarks. There are at least 30 in Colorado, in places including Fort Collins, Chipita Park, Leadville, Florence, Colorado Springs and metro Denver.

Most are installed on lawns near sidewalks, convenient for neighbors walking dogs and pushing strollers, but in Fowler, the pop-up library is stationed in an RV park laundromat.

The Little Free Library movement started in 2009, when Todd Bol built a tiny one-room schoolhouse, filled it with books and planted it in his Wisconsin yard with a sign: “Take a book, Return a book.”

Readers were charmed and the idea rapidly spread, allowing Bol to co-found the nonprofit Little Free Library, which maps the movement that now includes 5,000 mini-libraries in 36 countries, including Ghana, Qatar and Pakistan. It costs $35 to register the library, receive the official charter sign and be posted on the world map.

The tiny library at the Denver Academy, a private school for students with learning difficulties, is thriving.

“I understand the power of books and the written word, and I’ve witnessed how finding the right book can change kids’ lives,” said author Jolene Gutierrez, the Denver Academy librarian who started the little library outside. “Our students are excited about the library and enjoy opening its little door to check for new books.”

In Leadville, the goal is also to hook people on books.

“Our community is a pretty low social-economic area in a lot of ways, and I just like the thought of helping people by encouraging reading,” said Mary Bender, an elementary-school teacher.

Like many tiny libraries, hers doubles as yard art: the little red schoolhouse her husband built is based on the historic schoolhouse in Malta, southwest of Leadville.

“They show your personality, or your environment’s personality,” she said.

In Chipita Park, the little library looks just like the Chipita Park Association building, where it stands in the lawn — the same cinnamon-red color, the identical shingles.

“It is another way that the people in this small community show how they share and look out for each other, as was especially evident during and after the Waldo Canyon fire,” resident Mary Jo Schraml said.

In north Boulder, the community is working with the NoBo Art District to develop six NoBo Little Libraries, paying local artists $1,000 to create art works that house books, including the plywood “Reading in Spires” sculpture

installed last week in Holiday Park.

Residents are using them as a pilot project, to convince city officials that they need a public library in their neighborhood.

“Little kids can’t get to the library themselves,” said artist and north Boulder resident Annette Coleman. “We’re very close to a mobile home park, which is mostly Latino, so we’ll have more books in Spanish.”

Perhaps the biggest challenge of a Little Free Library is weatherproofing. Snow has damaged several libraries.

But book-lovers forge on. Two of the newest libraries opened on Easter weekend. One on Cherry Street in Park Hill, hand-painted with Colorado forests and a fisherman in a stream, was busy the moment it opened. The other is on South Vine Street in Washington Park.

“It feels wonderful to be an anchored example of friendliness, civility and sharing centered around a love of reading,” said Robin Filipczak, who will soon host a dedication party and invite her Washington Park neighbors.

Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083, coconnor@denverpost.com or twitter.com/coconnordp