Eleven-year-old David Hofherr was there when Harry Potter defeated the basilisk hiding in the Chamber of Secrets. He survived middle school alongside "wimpy kid" Greg Heffley, and solved mysteries with the Hardy Boys.
Throughout his youth, the Jefferson City boy has gone on various adventures - all by reading books.
"It kind of takes me away from the world that I'm in right now and puts me into whatever is happening in the book," Hofherr said.
He's hoping to share his love for reading with the community through a little free library service, one that he established already with his mother, Beth. Little free libraries are stations where the public can access literature on a take-a-book, leave-a-book basis. The family's little free library isn't only for children, David Hofherr said, adding that a James Patterson book was dropped off last week.
Beth Hofherr and David Hofherr's godfather created the family's first little free library out of a popcorn machine, making it weather proof and painting it green. It sits on Elmerine Drive. The concept interested the mother-son team during a trip to Arkansas, where the Hofherrs watched the Missouri State Bears play baseball. While visiting a farmers market there, they noticed little free libraries scattered throughout the town.
"We thought that this community needed more literature for people who don't have much," David Hofherr said.
David Hofherr's dream is to expand the service, placing little free libraries in neighborhood parks like McKay where children will have accessibility.
"I feel like every kid should have a chance to read, whether they have money or they don't, their families are wealthy or not, they should be able to read whatever they want, whenever they want," he said.
Last Monday, he presented his idea to the Jefferson City Council.
"It was very exciting," he said. "I was very nervous, but it was also very fun."
He left city hall with support and $200 in donations. In need of weather-proof boxes, Beth and David Hofherr contacted the News Tribune for newspaper racks no longer in use and received four. David Hofherr said he would like to see five or six little free libraries in Jefferson City.
"The first few weeks it was out we got excited when we'd notice that a book was gone or that someone put one in," Beth Hofherr said.
"That's the way it's supposed to work. We figured if it can work this way on Elmerine, which is a small street, imagine what you can get in a park, where people are lots of the time."
As a teacher, Beth Hofherr, who is now retired, said she and her husband, Peter, knew the importance of introducing books into their children's lives. They read to their son as a newborn, turning the pages of the popular children's book "Goodnight Moon," among others.
"A book is like a friend - that's what my dad always says," David Hofherr.
The couple has also emphasized the importance of community service, doing what's within realms of possibility for others.
"I think it's important for kids to realize that not only do they have a voice, but they can impact things positively," Beth Hofherr said, "and hopefully that's something that will carry on with him throughout the rest of his life."