Michelle Howard


It has been our great pleasure to speak with Michelle Howard several times about many things related to living books and homeschooling. It was our particular privilege to work with Michelle to create a video that librarians, homeschoolers, and lovers of good books could watch and share as we all endeavor to better understand what a living book truly is and why it matters so much. On this page, we hope to pull together those resources and a few others to make it easy for librarians to find it all and make use of it.


Living Books Video

This short video is a trailer for a much more comprehensive video linked below. This video is perfect for sharing on social media, with donors, and with patrons. A special thanks to our friends at Biblioguides for hosting the video and the Private Lending Library Directory. You can share this video link when sharing: https://vimeo.com/936289740?share=copy

In one of our podcast chats with Michelle, she told us about the essential conversation she has with all of her new patrons. Many of our listeners reached out begging to hear more of that talk. But it was obvious that what we really needed was a video so she could show us the books side by side. This long video is perfect for librarians, educators, and those interested in a detailed comparison of non-living and living books.


Interviews with Michelle Howard

In June of 2023, we had the joy of chatting with Michelle on the Plumfield Moms podcast for the first time. In that interview, we heard about the miraculous ways in which God guided her into this library work. Michelle told us how it all started, encouraged us to understand how much God cares about this work, and left us inspired and eager to nurture our own libraries well.

Listen to our conversation about the New Patron Orientation Meeting by clicking on this image. Click here.
Listen to our follow-up conversation about composing a Living Books Education portfolio for college applications. Click here.
Read Michelle’s Library Story at The Card Catalog, click here.

Michelle has a 20-Question Living Books Library series on her YouTube channel.

You can learn more about Michelle and how she can help you at her website.


Looking for a lending library near you? Check out the directory hosted by our friends at Biblioguides. If you have a library, register today! It’s totally free and you control your information.


Resources for Living Books and Home Librarians

Our Librarian Life is a podcast specifically for living books librarians.

The Card Catalog is a resource for private lending librarians, wanna-be librarians, and people just interested in living books libraries and how they work. We, a group of both experienced and novice librarians, are working together to bring you encouragement in your own library journey, answers to some of your burning questions about how to start and manage a private lending library, and of course, some book talk along the way. 

In our Shelf Notes section of The Card Catalog, we are posting our librarian newsletter. You don’t have to be a lending librarian to subscribe! The newsletter, Shelf Notes, will be published and sent to your email around the 15th of each month.

Are you wondering if this is something you could do?