The LiLi Key and What It Means to Me

 📖 The LiLi Key and What It Means to Me

By: Kristi Cruise

Before I ever wrote The LiLi Key, I created two other special books that helped me see what was possible when stories meet purpose.

One was a thank-you book for David Longo, the generous CEO of CBI (Carolina Business Interiors), who gifted my first nonprofit free warehouse and office space “in perpetuity.” I had met him after a Chamber nonprofit pitch competition in 2011, and his support lifted us out of my garage and into a space we never could have imagined. We quickly grew to gift over 20,000 donated books a month to children in need. (And it's even more today!) As I think back on it even now, 15 years after at act of monumental kindness, it was one of the kindest and most generous things anyone had ever done for me in my entire life. Not only did he empower a non-profit, but he also believed in me. I will never forget it, nor will I ever forget him. The world is a far better place because of David Longo. 

Team Read 2013 and Kristi Cruise in CBI Warhouse
Cruise and Intern at CBI Warehouse in 2013
He was and is a human angel. 

I spent years wondering how to express my gratitude to someone like that. Finally, about four or so years later, I realized: a book. A story. One that maybe—just maybe—matched the scale of his generosity, or came close to expressing my grateful heart for all he had done. He loved it. It is possible it still sits on his office coffee table even today. 

My other pre-book from that same era, Luckier Than the Luckiest, was also never officially published or distributed (mostly due to costs). Still, I read it in classrooms all over Charlotte as part of our Magic Book Party program. It helped kids see the books they were receiving—often gently used and upcycled—as magical treasures. “These aren’t just old books,” I'd say. “They’re bookworm books.” Each one came from a child who had loved it before. I read that story to at least 10,000 kids over a decade, and in the end, it wasn’t just about the story—it was about the experience. Children would write on the front inside cover of a book what they wanted to be when they grew up, and we’d remind them: 'If you read every day, you can become that thing and anything else.' (There's a personal back story to this and I'll tell it one day.) 

Those early programs planted the seed for The LiLi Key—a book that isn’t just read, it’s felt, it's encoded as a magical experience that changes you from that day forward. 

Front cover of The LiLi Key, Second Edition

In one pivotal scene, children are invited to stop reading (yes, crazy, I know!), close their eyes while hugging two particular pages to their heart center. The pages show a glowing red heart with the world inside of it—because when they hold it, they are literally putting the whole world in their heart. And they feel it! (They also feel their heart chakra open. Cue yoga, meditation, and mindfulness.)  That moment activates what we call their inner Living Libraries. Their bodies enter a gentle, regulated state, which releases a grand cascade of feel-good endorphins and neurotropics. Their hearts and brains sync. Their endorphins peak. Their bodies feel it. And when they open their eyes again, something has shifted.

They say out loud:
“I’m a Living Library.”

Yes, it's magical. And that means everything to me. Every child deserves to feel their own inner Living Library. To feel all the many books they were born with and are filling up every day based on what they read and learn.

We updated the book once a few years ago, and another huge revision is coming (with real kids on the Creative Team, of course! Applications for our kid-led publishing teams are rolling)—because, like Living Libraries themselves, we too never stop growing. Every book I’ve written since The LiLi Key (with several genre-bending, flip-tastic exceptions) continues to build on this idea: that kids can feel their reading experience, live it, and carry its power into their lives.

Because Living Libraries don’t just change the world…
They uplift it.

And yes they get a real LiLi Key to wear as well. But that's for another post. 

Location: Charlotte, NC, USA

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