On Saturday morning, we went to our library branch for the puppet show and found that they were telling Elephant and Piggie stories. As we listened, I basked in the way there were so many different types of people for us to share the reading quilts with including Arabic-speaking families as well as Hindi-speaking languages. Afterwards, we talked to a mom and her two children who had a Jamaican accent to ask how far they were in the Magic Tree House series, and they gave us the inside scoop that the main branch had all the Magic Tree House books.
As we were looking for the Elephant and Piggie books we had just heard aloud, the librarian reminded us of the summer reading challenge. Although we had lost the lists I had picked up at the SC Book Festival, we were able to get new ones and relive all the reading and activities we had done.
I was reminded of the summer mornings we spent at the Spartanburg County Public Library as we wrote down the chapter books and picture books we had read this summer. I was reminded of the folded up list that we would get in the summer and those yellow reading tubes my younger brother, and I would hide in while my mom checked out the books. I was reminded of the trips back and forth that my mom made with us, and how we started to learn the different parts of the library and where our favorite books were kept.
When we went back to the library yesterday afternoon, the girls went straight to the Magic Tree House and Babymouse section, and I just smiled.
And when we went to Barnes and Nobles to pick out new books to celebrate reaching our summer reading goals and MH said, “I wish I owned a library, then I could get books whenever I wanted to,” I smiled again. It’s really hard and scary to wonder what you are passing on to your kids, but sometimes you see little glimpses of good things that are sinking into their hearts and minds.