#ILoveNYLibrariesDay

Growing up in Queens, I frequented two branches of the Queens Public Library.  It was always fun to go down to the main branch in Jamaica on the weekends. They had bins and bins of albums that you could check out.  Being a kid (copyright?) I remember playing and recording the songs I liked on my portable cassette player.  The Briarwood branch was more like home.  I could walk over there after school, do my homework, dive into random subjects in the World Book Encyclopedia (so much more kid friendly than the Encyclopedia Britannica set in my living room) and chill.

When I moved back to New York from stints in Maryland and Maine in 1996, I landed in the Capital Region without a job. My boyfriend, now husband, and I lived in an apartment. I spent a lot of time at the Guilderland Public Library searching for jobs. This was way before I became a librarian. Since 1999, the Castleton Public Library has been my home library.Yeah, I'm not feeling old right now.

I met some good friends at that library once I became a mom.  We would go for story hour and stay. And stay. And stay. We started making a lunch pot luck. "I'll bring the PB and J." "OK. I'll bring the goldfish."  "I got the juice boxes."  It got so crazy that one of my friends sewed a special tablecloth just for us to keep down there. Good times.

Today, more than ever, New York libraries have a lot to offer.  Have you checked out the Castleton Public Library website lately?  There are so many free resources.  Even if you don't have a library card, you can still check out books   They have additional databases (ie, Tumblebooks math) and even ideas for virtual field trips. Check out this LINK for a curated list  of activities and ideas for kids and teens.

Want more? Check out the New York Public Library page for tons of remote resources for parents, families, kids, and educators.

Of course, I have to include resources from my original home town library, the Queens Public Library. Check out their Facebook page for a calendar of all their virtual events. Just have to throw this out there--growing up in Queens that has made me who I am today.  Anyone from Queens can probably agree.  I am forever grateful for that and I love the Queens Public Library.

But we can't leave our upstate friends out.  Gosh, in just a few clicks, I'm realizing that you could go to any public library website and find virtual things to do.  After reading a tweet from my Buffalo friend, Maria, I went to the Buffalo Public Library page and woah! They have a ton of activities in their calendar! Between all these libraries, you could be busy literally every minute of the day! And we didn't even mention reading! If that doesn't make you love New York libraries, I don't know what will.

Yes, I love my friends in Texas. I proudly wear my Texas Bluebonnet award shirt. I have a Texas flag postcard by my circulation desk. But, I am undeniably a born and bred New Yorker and I love ALL my NY libraries. The ones from my childhood, my 20s and now. #ILoveNYLibrariesDay

PS: I got some amazing snail mail today from my friend, Elisha Cooper.  Could it BE more appropriate for #ILoveNYLibrariesDay ?  I don't think so. And a great way to end a celebration of #NationalLibraryWeek.  Thank you, Elisha.

I was hoping you could get a bag, too! So I went searching, sadly unsuccessfully, on NYPL's website.  Maybe when this is all over you can purchase one at the branch? However, I did find a link to free downloads of crosswords, wordfinds and coloring pages for kids and adults. Check it out.  And if you still need more to do, you know where to go! I 💙 Libraries!

Forever Banned

Today marks the beginning of banned book week.  Do you remember the first banned book you read? Where you read it? I do.

Well, I take that back.  I remember the first book I was banned from and where I subsequently ended up reading it.

It's the early 80s and I was a huge Judy Blume fan. Everything she wrote about I could relate to--divorce, being Jewish, the friendships, the families, intermarriage, coming of age...everything really except the suburbia and boy did I want to live in the suburbs back then. Having gotten through all her early middle grade/upper elementary books, I thought I was ready for Forever.

Mom disagreed.  I just had to read it.  So where did I go? If Mom wasn't going to easily put it in my hands as she did every other book then the library was the next logical stop.

Enter the Briarwood branch of the Queens Public Library.  I can still see it so vividly.  Walk in the doors and go straight back to the Children's Section. Since we had a set of Encyclopedia Britannica at home circa 1967, I fell in love with the World Book Encyclopedia at the library.  It was so much more accessible!

Walk in and turn immediately to your right. And there it was--one tall bookcase of Young Adult literature screaming my name.  I remember taking Forever off the shelf (a very beat up paperback), sliding my back down the wall slowly for effect, ending in "criss cross applesause" (we called it something different back then) and diving in head first.

I didn't finish the book the first day so I memorized my page and came back to it the next time I could get to the library. I was meeting up with a "friend" and it felt sinfully good. I never told my Mom and I could see why she wanted me to wait to read it. But we all know. Once you tell a kid they can't do something, they are surely going to find a way to do it. And that I did.

I cannot tell you if the book was banned or censored in my public school. At the time it was just banned from my eyes.  But there it was at the library calling my name.  I was free to read it--just off the Van Wyck Expressway--to escape once again to the suburbs and young teenage love. Thank you, Queens Public Library and thank you, Judy Blume.

It all began at PS 117 for Ruth Behar and me...

I can't stop thinking about Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar.  This is how my story goes:

I had been hearing a lot about the book so when it finally came in at the public library, I ran over there to pick it up.  It was probably around 8pm and my husband had already retired upstairs to work on his crossword puzzle.  Both of my kids were at sleepaway camp so the house was quiet.  I settled into the sofa, read the first paragraph, then the second and then I screamed.  OMG! I'm surprised I didn't trip as I galloped up the stairs to Kevin. Hyperventilating, I read the words aloud:

PS 117!  That was MY elementary school! I couldn't believe it.  I talk about PS 117 all the time! I am a firm believer that my upbringing in Briarwood surrounded by diversity helped form who I am today.  Of course, I hated that Ruthie began in the "dumb class" so I was pulling for her from day one to get moved out.  Why weren't the classes heterogenous back then? Even though the book takes place about 10 years before my time at PS 117, we were still tracked in the 70s, too.  Check out Facebook and you can see the success of the cohort of kids from Mrs. Brown's fifth grade class: successful attorneys, journalists, library directors, businessmen and women, chiropractors...

Anyway, back to Lucky Broken Girl.

This is the story of Ruthie, the Hopscotch Queen of Queens, whose Jewish family emigrated from Cuba.  She even has a Bubby and Zady (Grandma and Grandpa in Yiddish).  We just celebrated my Bubby's (my kids call her "Super Bubby") 93rd birthday!

Ruthie's life changes in an instant, when one day, in her dad's new blue Oldsmobile, the family gets into an accident that leaves Ruthie in a body cast for a year.

"My leg is fractured, but all of me broke.  Who'll put me together again?"-p. 52

"Just the other day I felt so grown-up in my go-go boots.  And now I'm like a baby in diapers again."-p.61

Like a famous fictional middle grade character, Margaret, who wrote letters to G-d, so does Ruthie.  "...if I had to choose between going back to the dumb class and not being able to walk, I would ask you to send me to the dumb class." And she can't shake her hatred for the boy who caused the accident.  "Do you think you can help?  Maybe, while I sleep, you can come and snatch away all the hate that is like a stone in my heart?"

Being in bed for one year of your life wouldn't be easy for anyone.  Some days "the sadness arrives and sits on [her] head. It gets comfortable and stays there. Like a dark cloud that won't go away." But with the support and friendship of neighbors Chicho and Mark, tutor, Joy, Mami, Papi, Izzie, her good doctor, ambulance and hospital workers, Bobbie and Clay...Ruthie is brave, optimistic and a survivor. "You helped me survive a terrible experience.  I know that all of you helped me to get through it."

"Why is it that bad things have to happen so you learn there are lots of good people in the world?"- p.174

Lessons learned. Tears shed. Smiles worn.  Giggles heard. This book has it all and will bring out the best in you. You'll be cha-cha-cha-ing in your go-go boots and pulling for Ruthie from Day 1.

Side note to my PS 117 alumni, how easy it will be for you to imagine the sidewalks of Briarwood, Ruthie's apartment, our elementary school.  And I have to ask because I'm only vaguely remembering but wasn't Mrs. Margolis our third grade teacher?