Published: 11:57 BST, 19 March 2022 | Updated: 22:26 BST, 19 March 2022

The tiniest library in Maine, housed on Matinicus Island 22 miles off the state's coast, is on a mission to fill its shelves with unwanted and banned books.

From 'And Tango Makes Three,' the story of two male penguins that raised a chick together, to classics like 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee, 'The Handmaid´s Tale' by Margaret Atwood, 'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck and 'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison, all books are welcome including those that are being banned or canceled in other parts of the country.

Eva Murray recently returned from a trip to the mainland with a bunch of books including 'And Tango Makes Three,' which the American Library Association says is one of the most banned books in the country.

She also brought back a number of field guides, which she told the Bangor Daily News are 'popular here.' 

Islanders also requested copies of 'Maus,' Art Spiegelman's graphic novel retelling his father's experiences as a Polish Jew and a Holocaust survivor, but Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shop in Rockland was out of copies.

Other than the field guides, which Murray purchased, the library's entire inventory is donated. It is organized and maintained entirely by volunteers, who tend to the 24/7 library whenever they have a spare moment.

Matinicus Island 22 miles off Maine's coast, populated by about 100 residents, is on a mission to fill its shelves with unwanted and banned books

The tiniest library in Maine, pictured, is housed on the island in a donated, refurbished shed

'We are buying banned books in order to publicly push back against the impetus to ban books. To say, 'If you don´t want it in your library, we want it in ours,'' Murray told the publication.

For years, islanders just traded books among themselves, but they decided to create a grassroots library in 2016 in an eight-by-ten prefabricated storage shed that an islander sought to get rid of. 

'Getting and acquiring a building out here is no small thing,' Murray, who is the founder of Matinicus' recycling program, told the publication. 'I said, 'How about we take it, move it off the property, renovate it and it can become our library,'' she said. 'That is, in fact, what happened.'  

Islanders applied to give the library nonprofit status, then had an island carpenter renovate the shed's interior and Murray's electrician husband wire it.

Eva Murray recently returned from a trip to the mainland with a bunch of books including 'And Tango Makes Three,' (pictured among other banned books on the library's shelves) which the American Library Association says is one of the most banned books in the country

The library added a children's wing - a second shed structure, ferried in from the mainland - in 2020 

It expanded in 2020 to add a second shed for a children's library after Kristy Rogers McKibben, who grew up on the island and had established a short-lived, ad-hoc lending library 40 years prior, applied for a grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation. A second insulated shed was delivered to the small island on a ferry.

'It's cute as a bunny,' Murray said of the children's library. 'It's just something that makes people smile. It's got the same nice carpentry inside, pine shelving, and I painted this neat, colorful floor.'

There's no librarian. Patrons borrow books using the honor system. Books are checked out by writing the book's name in a notebook. 

 As the library grew, the island started to become the bookish equivalent of the 'Island of Misfit Toys,' the place where unwanted toys reside in the Christmas classic, 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.'

The library is also the island's first free wireless hotspot, which Murray said has made a difference for a lot of residents. The sheds aren't heated, but patrons make do.

'I am every day surprised how much people respect and honor and appreciate and support this,' Murray said. 

The emphasis on banned books does not seem to be controversial on Matinicus, the state´s most remote and isolated community.

With only 100 year-round residents, a live-and-let-live tolerance and appreciation for differences is essential.

'We are in a privileged position to say, 'We don´t ban books,' and that we welcome people´s suggestions for books,' Murray said. 

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