The little red schoolhouse at the corner of Honeysuckle Lane and Olympic Terrace has a surprise inside.

It’s filled with books.

“The Help,” “Eldest” and David McCullough’s “John Adams” are a few standout titles. There’s also a Hardy Boys classic, Fodor’s “Costa Rica 2007” and legal thrillers from John Grisham and James Patterson nestled into the 1.5-by-1-by-2-foot box.

It’s a “Little Free Library,” one of more than 30,000 neighborhood lending libraries registered worldwide. Todd Bol, a resident of Hudson, Wisconsin, built the first in 2009 as a tribute to his mother, a long-time teacher and lover of books. Then, while attending a workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bol met Rick Brooks, a youth and community development instructor, who recognized the potential of the do-it-yourself project and goaded him into turning it into a full-blown social enterprise. Their initial goal was to surpass Andrew Carnegie (the steel baron with a penchant for philanthropy funded 2,509 libraries in his lifetime). They didn’t have much difficulty spreading the concept.

Bainbridge got its first Bol-inspired book exchange in July 2012, when Donna Dahlquist erected a birdhouse-like box, bedecked with keys and colorful bottle caps, off of a popular walking path near Shepard Drive. Tragically, Little Free Library #892 was burned down by vandals just five weeks later.

But Dahlquist bounced back and installed #1125, now one of 23 book nooks on Bainbridge.

The fixture at Honeysuckle Lane is the island’s newest, crafted by Scott Sherman, a retired Los Angeles Police Department detective, for his wife Marjorie this past spring.

“I had seen them while biking [around the island]… and I asked him to [make] one,” she said. “He built a whole wood shop in our garage just to get started.”

Scott unveiled his masterpiece, copied from a model he saw in a YouTube video, to friends and neighbors at a party in late April.

“It was really fun and community-oriented,” Marjorie said. Everybody brought two or three of their own books and families contributed benches and home-made bookmarks to go in a wood-pouch Scott engraved.

Library stewards don’t have to build their own model, however. Offerings in Bol’s online catalog run the gamut — from the Essential, an unadorned “house” that requires assemblage and additional materials (Plexiglas, knobs, paint, hardware), to the British Phone Booth, a fancy model at a fancy price ($600). High-rolling Simpson devotees can even spring for a canary yellow structure custom designed by Matt Groening. At $1,000,000.01, it features hand-drawn Simpson characters and reading-friendly quotes, and comes with personal delivery and a dinner date with LFL’s founder.

Marjorie checks in every couple of days, making sure the library is being used, that the inventory is changing. And Scott monitors for maintenance needs. After all, they’re very proud of their project.

It’s a big attraction for a quiet cul-de-sac of seven houses. People go out of their way to visit, walking their dogs and running along the no outlet road. And passerby seem to respect a wood sign affixed to the front — “Take a book, return a book” — so the collection becomes carefully curated.

To learn more about Little Free Libraries, visit www.littlefreelibrary.org.

Bol’s organization maintains a map with registered exchanges, but a more complete list can be found on the Little Free Libraries of Bainbridge Island Facebook page.