From: Donna L. Vukelich <dlvukelich>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 23:30:20 -0500

when we moved back to Madison (where I grew up and remember almost daily bike rides to the Sequoya branch library), my younger son Joaquin had not yet started school and could not read -- but he loved being read to and so very much wanted to take out books on HIS own library card ... we made a trip downtown to the library and he painstakingly wrote out his name (only his first name!), not quite evenly on the line ... it seemed to take hours but the very wonderful librarian was patient and respectful and that attitude gave an air of importance and solemnity to the whole endeavor ... when the librarian had finished making the plastic-encased card, he extended his hand over the counter and down to the expectant child ... "welcome," he said,
"welcome to the world of books ..."







----- Original Message ----- From: Linda Leopold Strauss <strauss at one.net> Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 4:15 pm Subject: [CCBC-Net] Life-changing librarians To: ccbc <ccbc-net at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu>

> I have loved this topic. I, too, had a life-changing librarian--
> in Melrose
> Park, Pennsylvania, some sixty years ago. I learned to read very
> early, and
> when my parents took me to get a library card, the librarian said
> I couldn't
> get a card till I went to school. When my parents explained that
> I could
> read, she agreed to test me: my father sat me up on the high
circular
> check-out desk (which was taller than I was) and I managed to read
> a sheet
> of paper on which were written the library rules. Victory! I
> don't remember
> if there was an actual written rule on that sheet of paper about
> not getting
> a card till one was in school, but if there was, that wonderful
> librarianbroke it. She also broke other rules for me: first
> graders could take out
> one book at a time; second graders, two; etc. I always got to
> take out as
> many books as I wanted, and I remember going home with piles of the
> "colored" fairytale books, Red, Blue, Green, Silver. I can still
> rememberexactly where they were on the library shelves. What
> bliss!
>
>
>
> Thank you, librarians everywhere!
>
>
>
> Linda Strauss
>
>
>
>
>
> Linda Leopold Strauss
>
>
>
> A Fairy Called Hilary (Holiday House, 1999)
>
> Really, Truly, Everything's Fine (Marshall Cavendish, 2004)
>
>
>
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Received on Thu 25 May 2006 11:30:20 PM CDT