Welcome to National Library Week!
As someone who spends a lot of time seeking out great books online and offline, especially at the public library, I always appreciate it when I get a recommendation from a friend, a blogger, or a librarian. It makes my life so much easier!
Most parents do not have much time to seek out a wide variety of children's and YA books to present to their reluctant and/or picky readers. But even as someone who spends most of my free time seeking out great books for myself and my family, I often forget that there are people who can help staring me and my children right in the face!
Take the school librarian, for example. How many parents actually take time out to get to know their child's?
A more important question is: how many children spend at least a class period in their school library every week, and never ask for help in finding a book? Well, I don't think either of my children ever did! Maybe it was because I always took them to the public library, maybe it was that there was a limited selection, maybe it was due to time constraints and special projects, or maybe it was that they just didn't want to ask for help.
Well, here's a story for you! GreenGuy is in his last year of elementary school; so during my recent parent-teacher conference, I decided to stop into the school library to speak with the school librarian about issues concerning education, literacy, and the state of funding for libraries. She asked about both of my children, and what they were reading.
I mentioned recent books and authors GreenGuy enjoyed, and she recommended a few that he had already read. But then she asked me if he had read the Pendragon series, by D.J. MacHale. He hadn't. When she started telling me about how it involved time travel, I knew it was right up my son's alley! He checked the first one out the next time he visited the school library.
Well, it just so happened that as part of a special Lenten journal project for religion class (I teach it), GreenGuy chose to give up screen time (television, video games, etc...) in order to spend more time reading! I was very happy with his choice.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when I read his reaction to this series in his journal:
"I think I
have just struck gold. The librarian at
my school just recommended the Pendragon series to me and I love it. I am currently on the first book, The Merchant of Death (Pendragon Series #1)
. I can’t really explain what it is about, it
would be easier to read the book. This
series is in the same league as Harry Potter and The Lightning Thief in my opinion."
"Reading can be just as fun as watching TV. I will be reading a lot for the next month or so with the Pendragon series. Hopefully after that I will find another good series, and all of this reading will continue."
Striking gold in a school library. Those words are like a rainbow in my heart! Now that I think about it, if books are the gold, the librarian is the rainbow...
I am so thankful that I stopped into the school library that day, and wish I had asked for suggestions sooner! What a perfect example of the Share a Story, Shape a Future blog tour theme of It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader!
While we all may be short on time these days, it just goes to show that a simple question or conversation can help people of all ages to connect in ways that help us all to learn, share, and grow together. If we want our children to be able to connect the dots of learning, then we have to become the bridge that connects them with people, places, and things that will help them do so.
If it were up to me, children and teachers would spend A LOT more time in the school library, and more funds would be allocated to them by school districts. There they would learn how much joy there really can be in the simple act of reading, and that it's not all about the tests.
It's not up to me, though. It's up to all of us to support public and school libraries in any way we can. We all need to act as bridges of literacy, and there are many ways to do so. You can read all about them in a great blog post by Terry Doherty of The Reading Tub.
So, I'm sending a huge shout-out to all kinds of librarians! Thank you so much for all that you do.
And now for a trip to my local library...