Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the January 3, 2019 edition of the Norwood
Transcript and Bulletin.
As a young girl, one of my preferred gifts at Christmas was a book. Classics like Heidi, Five Little Peppers, Swiss Family Robinson, and Little Women remain some of my most cherished possessions. I’ve always surrounded myself and my family with books and literally poured books into my children’s hands, overflowing the bookshelves in our home.
Transcript and Bulletin.
As a young girl, one of my preferred gifts at Christmas was a book. Classics like Heidi, Five Little Peppers, Swiss Family Robinson, and Little Women remain some of my most cherished possessions. I’ve always surrounded myself and my family with books and literally poured books into my children’s hands, overflowing the bookshelves in our home.
We all
know librarians fancy books. More than that, though, it takes reverence for
books to pursue a profession about them. Yet, libraries are evolving places
where exciting programs and marvelous things are becoming more and more
relevant to a library’s mission. The field is attracting young professionals
who are, in addition to clever researchers and keen readers, excited about
technology, music, and social synergy.
Not
suprisingly, librarians don’t have the corner on book loving. My family of children
and their spouses – educators, graphic designers, marketing gurus – all worship
books. Family times always see at least one or two of the adults curled up in a
nook – often with a book discovered on one of our many shelves. Our
grandchildren held their first books as infants -small cloth or chunky board
books were wedged into their strollers and car seats. Their own collections
grew until their favorite crawling or toddling activity was swiping them all
off the shelf into a heap. They always reached for their favorites: Barnyard
Dance by Sandra Boynton, the Hungry Little Caterpillar by Eric Carle, or Brown
Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin. Most parents (and
grandparents,alike) can recite the words by heart through closed eyelids until they
open them to turn back to the first page. “Again?” And again. And again.
This year,
I bought multiple copies of my two favorite 2018 books as presents for my
children and friends. One is The Library Book by Susan Orlean. While I had
listened to the audio version, I took out our library’s speed read copy so that
I could hold the lovely book in my hand, stroking the cloth cover (no jacket)
and flipping through the few illustrations.
The back inside cover depicts a library book pocket and date due card.
It’s so realistic that you can’t resist touching it with your fingers to find
that it is only a photographic image.
The
Library Book tells the story of the massive fire that burned in the Los Angeles
Public Library on April 29, 1986. The mysterious blaze, officially determined
to be arson, destroyed 400,000 books and damaged another 600-700,000 more. It
burned for seven hours and was fought by over 350 firefighters from 60
firefighting companies. Fortunately, all 400 visitors and staff in the library
at the time of the fire were evacuated. Heat swelled to over 2,000 degrees
within the concrete walls and firefighters worked to cut 18 holes in the
building to release the smoke and heat and decrease the temperature.
In 1986
the fire hadn’t received much attention. Chernobyl was the talk of the day that
captured the media’s attention. More than 30 years later, the story unfolded
through Orleans. Susan Orlean is a passionate author who began her research
accidentally when she toured the Los Angeles Public Library and heard that some
of the books still smelled of smoke. That smoking gun, so to speak, led to
research.
The
account in The Library Book is so much more than just the fire. It incorporates
a history of the city library and a 1921 effort to finally build a respectable
library in a sun-drenched, fantastical place named “The City of Angels."
The story includes interesting characterizations of its first and current
librarians. In addition, Susan Orlean describes the notable and remarkable attempts
to destroy books and libraries throughout world history. She includes the
accomplishment of rebuilding the main library in the 1990s.
I gave
copies of my other favorite 2018 book, Becoming by Michelle Obama, to my
daughters. While it is principally an autobiography of the life of the “first”
African American First Lady, it is most significantly a book about a capable
woman who learned to navigate her responsibilities as a young girl and young
woman, a mother, and a wife. All of our daughters and daughters-in-law are
professionals, wives, and mothers and we watch them in awe as they balance all
aspects of their lives. Obama’s act is one to follow and includes some of the
immeasurable advice they will read.
Our
grandchildren all received books, as they usually do for their birthdays,
Christmas, and any other chance I have. It was our granddaughter Maeve’s book,
the75th Anniversary edition of the Complete Adventures of Curious George
(2016), that created the best reading adventure of 2018. While Maeve has copies
of the Curious George Around Town books that she fell in love with earlier this
year, I wanted to give her a copy of the seven original Curious George stories
in one hefty volume. And hefty it is at 3.4 pounds.
There is
debate about Curious George. Some feel (my ex-husband among them) that Curious
George is obnoxiously curious and never has to suffer the consequences of his
misbehavior. Others simply believe that Curious George is a good little monkey
at heart who topples again and again into trouble. My ex-husband refused to
read Curious George to any of my daughters; I suspect
The Complete Adventures actually includes only
seven Curious George stories, but they are the original ones published between
1941 and 1966, and written and illustrated by H.A. Rey and his wife, Margret.
Our very own Curious George Christmas adventures included at least ten readings
of Curious George Goes to the Hospital and Curious George Rides a Bike. Other
stories in the book are Curious George Takes a Job and the original story,
naturally named Curious George. “This is George. George was a good little
monkey, but he was always curious.”
If you are
a little bit curious, it’s not too late in the first weeks of 2019 to read some
of my favorite gift books from 2018.
