Donated by Mission Australia, the library is part of the Paint the Town REaD initiative and encourages a whole community approach to support early literacy by people taking, giving and sharing books.

Nineteen-year-old artist Chloe Hargreaves volunteered her time to paint the library.

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A bright fire engine red, the artistic design pays homage to the garden surroundings with colourful butterflies, snails and other insects, clouds and a rainbow.

Chloe put her hand up after the Taree Community Garden put a call out on it's Facebook page looking for a painter and she was tagged.

She contacted the garden's co-ordinator Bree Katsamangos asking about the size.

"Bree said it was only pretty small and I got some details of what she wanted. It was a bit stressful at the start but everything fell together," said Chloe.

Known for her zentangle and other public art in Wingham and Taree, Chloe went with a 'cartoony' approach for this particular work.

"It's more cartoony. I'd like to head into that more if I can, and picture books."

About 10 more street libraries for the area have been funded and Chloe said she would love to paint more of them if given the opportunity.

Bree said the street library is intended for children's books at the moment so they are looking for donations of children's books, but adult books are more welcome.

Donations can be dropped off to Bree at Mission Australia, located at Ground Suite 2, 1 Pulteney Street, Taree.

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