No fees, no cards. When students stop by the home library of local teacher Huynh Thi Thanh Phuong, they’re on the honour system. She trusts them that much.

Phuong, who teaches at a primary school in An Phu Commune in HCM City’s rural Cu Chi District, allows students to drop by even when she is not at home.

“I wanted to create conditions to promote honesty and responsibility among the children,” Phuong said.

Primary school teacher Huynh Thi Thanh Phuong and students read at her home in HCM City’s rural Cu Chi District. (Photo: vietnamnews.vn)

Book borrowers are asked to write down their names and the lending and return dates in a notebook on a table in the library, located in a small room.

Some of the books are placed along a corridor or hung on windows to catch the eyes of children. Visitors can stay and read or take a book home, Phuong says.

When she began collecting two years ago, Phuong had only 200 books, but the number has risen to 1,500.

All the books have been donated by publishers, writers, volunteer students and other donors around the country. The books cover a wide variety of topics such as literature, history and geography, and include comics and textbooks.

Phuong’s passion for reading extends beyond her home and classroom. At An Binh Primary School, where she teaches, she sometimes takes books to the school’s playground for kids to read during their break./.

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