Who Took Marion's Little Free Library?

It's gone.

One of Marion's two "Little Free Libraries" is missing. It disappeared within the past week from Thomas Park, said Jo Pearson, assistant director of Marion's "big" free library.

"My hope is it was a prank and they tossed it someplace and we can find it," Pearson said. "Because, I don't know we can replace it."

Little Free Libraries are like mailboxes for people to take or leave a book. It is part of a national literacy project intended to promote reading through the free exchange of books.

Marion's second library is in Lowe Park. They went up this summer.

A retired volunteer from Rockwell Collins built the red wooden structure, which is about 2.5 feet tall, 1.5 feet tall and a foot deep.

"They were so well built, beautiful buildings," she said. "He devoted so much time and effort to build it."

She wants to increase awareness that it is missing so people can be on the look out and return it to the library if they find it.

"It was going really well," Pearson said. "People were taking books, leaving books. It was going really well. It was doing exactly what it was supposed to do."