April 2006

Dear Fellow Book Lovers:

NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK CHANGES WORLDS

April marks the celebration of National Library Week. This year’s theme, Change Your World @ Your Library, is a very appealing thought to me. Most adults can name a book, or perhaps a library experience that changed their world in their youth. I was only eleven when a librarian introduced me to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and my world was changed. I knew very little about Francie Nolan’s world, but this main character of Smith’s novel spoke to me at a level no book had ever done. Francie had the same adolescent thoughts that I had, though her adolescence occurred decades before mine. Even today Francie is my best friend, and I celebrate our friendship by rereading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn every year during National Library Week. Francie set a goal to read every book in the library in alphabetical order. What a nice thought! While that would be an unrealistic goal today, we can lead children and young adults toward setting goals that are easily achieved. Worlds are changed only when we are willing to explore and investigate topics that reach beyond the world we already know. Perhaps it is a book that we never thought would interest us, or maybe it’s a virtual fieldtrip to a museum half-way across the world. How different peoples' worlds are changed may be personal and private to them, but National Library Week is a time to let patrons know that the library has the power to help them on their journey.

• Sponsor a panel of adults, children and young adults and ask them to discuss how libraries have changed their world.

• Have a similar program where participants talk specifically about books that have changed them.

• Share books such as The Boy Who Loved Words (ages 5-8) by Roni Schotter and illustrated by Giselle Potter and Alia’s Mission by Mark Alan Stamaty (ages 6-9) to demonstrate the power of books to some of our very young patrons.

• Introduce books in which main characters take a journey toward changing their lives. Holes and Small Steps by Louis Sachar (ages 10-up), Milkweed by Jerry Spinneli (ages 12-up), The Giver and The Messenger by Lois Lowry (ages 10-up), The Watson’s Go to Birmingham 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (ages 10-up), Burning Up by Caroline B. Cooney (ages 12-up), and House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff (ages 9-12) are a few examples from Random House.

• Display and talk about nonfiction that deals with someone or a group of people who changed history. Such books may include: Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Homefront in World War II and Where the Action Was by Penny Colman (ages 10-12), The Daring Nellie Bly by Bonnie Christensen (ages 5-8), A Horn for Louis by Eric Kimmel and illustrated by James Bernardin (ages 5-8), and The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali by Tonya Bolden and illustrated by Gregory Christie (ages 6-10). Help young patrons understand the connection between all types of library resources by introducing them to websites to support the information they have already read. For example: Lead them to further information about Rosie the Riveter at www.rosietheriveter.org.

You may email me at pscales@bellsouth.net.