"I am a part of all I have read." ~John Kieran
Once a week I go to the library. Going to the library has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I went there with my mother as a child and spent countless hours there as a teenager. In college, I had a regular ‘nook’ I holed up in, reading and drinking coffee till the wee hours before heading back to my dorm. When our children were little we began going to the library before they could walk. I have a wonderful memory of our oldest son sitting in his car seat while perched on the counter, my books for the week being checked out by the librarian. As she leaned over to look into the carrier she remarked:"One day you’ll be a reader." And it is true. Yesterday I came home to find him in the backyard reading leisurely in a hammock, a welcome break I am sure from the intensity of college reading.
But my trips to the library this summer are with yet another generation. Our neighbor, a soon-to-be first grader and a new reader and I go weekly so she can return the books she has read and get new ones. She is registered in the Summer Book Club, that stroke of brilliance created by librarians to ensure that children continue to read during the summer months.Much time and creativity is invested in catchy themes, rewards of stars and pizza coupons to get children to sign on to a marathon of summer reading with the hope of returning them back to school in the fall with not too much progress lost. Each week she arrives at our door, book bag in hand, and we head off. Everything about the library is new to her. She asks questions about the computers, what it means to ‘renew’ a book, what a ‘fine’ is, and uses her library card with the pride of an American Express Gold Card holder.
Last night as we turned the corner onto the street of the library, her excited voice echoed from the safety of the backseat:"There it is! I love the library!" How could my heart not fill with warmth and my eyes with tears? Another reader is born. Another reader who will enfold the stories of courage and hope into her life. Another reader who will look up important facts and scan maps and dictionaries for places and definitions. Another reader who will be brought to tears by a story that is so close to her own life it is painful to read or be filled with anger at the injustice of what might happen to someone.Another reader who will learn that knowledge is power.
There is the bumper sticker that says:If you can read this, thank a teacher. True. I would also add:If you can read this, thank a librarian. That other underpaid, mostly undervalued group of people who now do what they do because once they were a part of a Summer Book Club. And from that moment on they knew they had to do what they loved……read.
This weekend promises to be hot, humid and stormy. Perhaps it is time to settle in with a good book. Enjoy!
No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning