Saturday, April 10, 2010

I Heart Libraries! (And Librarians!)


It's Library Appreciation week, and the marvelous Shelli Johannes-Wells over at Market My Words had the uber-marvelous idea for a group of authors to share their favorite library/librarian stories. Where do I even begin?! I grew up in libraries, thanks to a book-loving mom who "tricked" me into reading all the Newbery and Caldecott books by telling me that the books with stickers on them were the "very best." Most of Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different and Selling Hope were written in libraries (The Brentwood Library and The Williamson County Library, respectively). I find working in libraries both peaceful and inspirational. (Smell those books? Ahhhh!) And since the release of Autumn, I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the coolest librarians in the state, including Ms. Lindsey Wesson, who works for the Tennessee State Library, and Ms. Missy Dillingham, who works for the Brentwood Library. Both ladies are funny and smart and they love their jobs - just like you'd imagine a librarian being.

But the librarian who influenced me the most is Ms. Sheila Rollins, the librarian at City Park Elementary School where I grew up, in Athens, TN. She had a wonderful program: any student who read three of an author's books and did book reports on them could then interview that author by telephone! The author I chose?



Madeleine L'Engle! I remember two things about this experience:
1. The interview was conducted over a speakerphone. Wowza! All you had to do was talk, and the other person could hear you! Tres high tech. Very Charlie's Angels.
2. When I told Ms. L'Engle that I, too, wanted to be a writer, she responded, "Good for you! Keep reading and you can do it!"

Needless to say, that interview changed the path of my life. Thank you, Ms. Rollins, for your dedication to your students!

Save the Libraries!



4 comments:

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

this is great! Thanks for the donation too :) You going to LA?

Kristin Tubb said...

You're welcome! And thank YOU for coordinating this effort - so much fun!

Not going to LA, unfortunately. :( I went to NY and hope to travel with Selling Hope this fall. Have a GREAT TIME! :-)

Angel Borland said...

what a neat story about you and l'engle! i met anne m martin when i was young and told her i wanted to be a writer when i grew up and she signed my book "to a fellow author." i about died!!

and i used to spend a lot of time in the brentwood library when my husband (then boyfriend) lived down there several years ago. weird!

i saw where you are coming to the southern ky bookfest here in bowling green. it is always a lot of fun. hope you enjoy it!

Kristin Tubb said...

Thanks for stopping by, Angel! Ms. Martin is amazing - what a wonderful story! And how funny that you know the Brentwood Library - love it. That fireplace is downright yummy! I hope to see you at the book festival! :-)