What is one of your favorite children’s stories?

Reading was as regular, as sitting down to dinner in my childhood. Depending on the season, my age, and the many books and stories I discovered, it is hard to pick just one favorite. There were the chapter books and stories too advanced to read by myself, but they completely captured my imagination. The engagement I discovered when finally learning to read has never left me. Worlds opened up of my own choosing. I could learn anything I wanted and travel to faraway places. Reading has been and is a life long passion. And while I can say it began in my family of readers, there is another place that equally fueled this passion.

Our farm was located several miles from the town of Wappingers Falls. Every couple of weeks we would all pile in the car making several stops to gather supplies, go to appointments, etc. At the end of the day our reward would be to stop at the library. To give you the full picture, I must describe the storybook library of Wappingers Falls. It was called Grinnell Library and was housed in a tudor style building (the sign was painted by Grandma from her sign painting days). It had secret passageways, dark hallways and winding staircases that led to two turrets. In one of these turrets lived the librarian. My sisters and I sometimes quietly climbed the stairs to get a glimpse of the apartment of the librarian. The idea of living in the library sparked our imaginations, it seemed fantastical. The librarian, Ms. Drace, was so devoted to the library, this apartment was made for her. She lived there for fifty years. Because of her devotion she came to know library patrons quite well. She would know what type of books you might like and direct you to them or have them waiting for you on her desk.

The first book I ever read by myself was “Little Bear” by Maurice Sendak. I loved this book for a lot of reasons. The animals could talk, the girl and her family had a summer cabin and they had parties. But the most important thing was I could read it myself. A few years later it was Ms.Drace that led me to the “Little House on the Prairie” series. I devoured these books. I wanted to live exactly like the Ingalls. I would incessantly talk to my mom about how great it would be to live just like them. My Mom’s response would be that we already do. Maybe not on the prairie, but we had enough similarities. We lived on a hundred acre apple orchard, we had only cold running water in the house and we grew all of our food. For years our source of water was from a hand pump on a well outside. I was ten before we had hot running water in the house. This meant years of heating bath water to carry upstairs. Sometimes the Wilders camped by a river. I also begged my mom to take us camping. Instead she sent me with family friends on camping trips. She felt she camped at home. When a vacation was on the horizon, she wanted a cabin with a hot shower and eat in restaurants. These books had such an influence over me. For a while I felt like I knew exactly how I wanted my life to look. All these years later, I still feel the influence of these books. When this phase was over, the librarian directed me to the “Nancy Drew” series. I devoured these and felt fortunate the series was so large. Every week I would get another one to add to my stack of books. Nancy Drew held possibilities of having an adventurous life. A life of doing hard things, being smart and getting out of tough situations. “Little Bear”, “Little House on the Prairie” and “Nancy Drew” were powerful and instrumental in my development. They sparked my imagination of other possible worlds.

Because my family was one of avid readers, we had our own collection of books. And because I loved the library and our librarian, I catalogued our books at home. I put them in alphabetical order and numbered them. I wanted my family to check them out and return them by the due date. Mostly, though, I just liked the organizing, the smell of books and knowing that anytime I wanted I could travel to other places and imagine other ways of being. And I, too, could live in the library.