A Place of Encouragement


Our walk to the library was filled with preschool chatter. My granddaughter was equally nervous and excited. She carefully carried her first self-authored book. It was an illustrated story she’d created about an orange ball we’d found.

After she’d finished it, I’d mentioned that the librarian would probably like to see her book. Well, I hoped the librarian would be excited. I know my mom, a city librarian, would have wanted to encourage a young writer. But I may have overstated what a busy librarian had time for—I mean, this was an unpolished handmade book.


But it meant everything to the little girl now holding it.


We walked up to the large desk where the librarian was sitting. My granddaughter became overly shy, so I explained about her book and the librarian smiled reassuringly. “May I see your book?”


The next several minutes the librarian read, smiled, asked questions, and then encouraged my granddaughter with the words, “The reason we have all these books” she said, as she waved to the thousands of books around us, “is because people like you wrote stories.”


All the way back home my granddaughter talked about the next book she’d write. 


Encouragement came with a small investment of a busy librarian’s time. For me, it was a sweet reminder that librarians are a connection to learning, creativity, and are often more than willing to offer a good dose of inspiration.




#HowILibrary #NationalLibraryWeek.


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