Welcome to Mana Jardin Children's Library 📚

A free library, right here in Mana Jardin.

Children choose their own book, take it home, and bring it back when they are done. No fee to join, no test at the end, and no catch. Reading here is meant to be the good part of the day.

Yoga Room, Mana Jardin ApartmentThe library is for children who live at Mana Jardin Apartment — whether your family owns your flat or rents it.

Ask for a library card Sign in

New here? See how it works, step by step

Free to join
Run by neighbours
Books shared, never sold

One short form, filled in by a parent or guardian. See what happens next, or read the questions families ask.

Mana Jardin Children's Library

Mana Jardin

Reader card

Reader

Your child’s name goes here

Free. No fees, no catch.

Ages: 5–16
At a time: 2 books
To keep: 14 days

Looking after a book

Bring a book back within 14 days
Ask the librarian before a book goes home
Keep it clean, dry and safe
If anything happens to a book, tell the librarian

Look inside our library

Every book on our shelves, what our readers thought of them, and the stars they gave. You do not need an account to look — only to borrow.

How our library works

Ask to join

A parent or guardian fills in one short form. Our librarian says hello and sets up a library card in your child’s name.

Choose a book

Your child picks it — not us, and not a reading level. Choosing is the part that turns a reader into a regular one.

Take it home

Keep it for 14 days, then bring it back so the next reader can enjoy it. Need longer? Just ask the librarian.

Collecting and returning happen at the Yoga Room, at the times shown on your child’s own page each week.

The step-by-step guide, with pictures

Signing in, asking for a book, keeping it longer and bringing it back.

Why it is worth walking down for

A habit, not a task

A book is a short walk away, so finishing one and starting the next is easy enough to keep doing. Nobody is graded and nobody is tested. Children who choose their own books keep reading for longer.

Built by the neighbours

Every book on the shelf was carried down by a family who lives here, and the library is run by volunteers from the same corridors. Children end up reading the same books as the friends they already play with.

Curiosity, answered

A question about a book used to mean waiting until somebody had time. Now every book on our shelves has an AI Librarian on its page that answers what a child wants to know about it — free, and in words that suit their age.

Something no shelf on its own can do

Every book comes with someone to ask

Children are relentless about the questions a book leaves behind. Who wrote this, and what else did they write? Is it scary? Was any of it real? When was it first published, and what was the world like then? What should I read after this one?

Every book on our shelves has an AI Librarian on its page that answers all of that — the story, the author, the history around it, where to go next — pitched at the age the book is shelved for. It is free, it needs no account, and it is awake at nine in the evening when the questions actually arrive.

It only talks about books, it says plainly when it is unsure, it never asks a child anything about themselves, and no conversation is kept.

Ask a question to our AI Librarian

Who wrote it?

Roald Dahl was a British writer who loved telling funny, surprising stories for children. He also wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG.

Answered by AI. AI can make mistakes, so check anything important with a librarian.

An example. The AI Librarian sits on every book’s page and answers questions about that book, in words that suit the age the book is shelved for.

What the AI Librarian does

Answers, on the book’s own page

Tap a book and ask. What is it about, is it frightening, was any of it real, who else did the author write for? Answers come back in two or three sentences, in words that suit the age the book is shelved for — so a six-year-old and a thirteen-year-old asking the same question get different answers.

Suggests what to read next

Once a child has borrowed a few books, their own page can show three suggestions drawn from what they have actually read and enjoyed, each with a line saying why. Every one is a book this library physically holds — never a title we would have to send a family away to buy.

Knows books, not children

It is told what a child has read. It is never told who they are — no name, no age, no flat, no contact detail leaves this library. It talks about books and declines everything else, says “I am not sure” rather than inventing an answer, and never asks a child anything about themselves. Conversations are not kept.

It is a computer, and computers get things wrong. The AI Librarian is there to help a child pick a book and satisfy a passing curiosity — not to do their homework, and not to replace the librarian in the room, who is the one who knows both the shelves and your child.

We have just started, and we are looking for your help

Every book on our shelves was given by a family here. The library grows the week somebody remembers the picture books their child has outgrown, and it grows again when the next family does the same — which is the whole plan.

Giving a book is never a condition of borrowing one. If you have nothing to pass on, your child is exactly as welcome, and nobody will know the difference.

Offer a book on WhatsApp Meet our book friends

What we do with your child’s details

We ask for as little as we can, and a parent or guardian fills it in — never the child.
A photograph stays private unless you tell us otherwise, and you can change your mind.
If your child writes about a book, a librarian reads it before anyone else does, and it is signed with a first name only — or with no name, if they prefer.
No advertising, and nothing on the pages children use is tracking them. Even the lettering is served from here rather than fetched from another company.

Read our rules in full — they are short, and written to be read by a child as well as a parent. The questions and answers go further: what we hold about your child, who can see it, and for how long.

Stuck? Ask a person

Having trouble creating an account for your child, or getting a book issued? Send us a message and we will walk you through it.

A neighbour answers these, not a robot — so please give us a little time to write back.

Message us on WhatsApp