[Monday Reading] The Library As A Place For Sanctuary in Picture Books for Children

Myra here.

It’s Monday, What are You Reading is a meme hosted by Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers (new host of Monday reading: Kathryn T at Book Date). Since two of our friends, Linda from Teacher Dance and Tara from A Teaching Life have been joining this meme for quite awhile now, we thought of joining this warm and inviting community.

This post is an ode to libraries and librarians everywhere who welcome everyone through their doors, such that it becomes a sacred place, a sanctuary for eager and bright young minds, or those who are simply lost in the rain.

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Please, Louise

Written by: Toni and Slade Morrison Illustrated by: Shadra Strickland
Published by: A Paula Wiseman Book: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 2014
ISBN: 1416983384 (ISBN13: 9781416983385)
Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

I first learned about Toni and Slade Morrison’s partnership in picture books in The Book Of Mean People and The Big Box. While I am a huge fan of Toni Morrison’s adult novels, I find her picturebooks a hit-or-miss for me. Take this one, for example. Told in rhyming text, the story features a young girl who has braved the rains to head off somewhere… place undetermined as yet in the beginning of the story.

It appears, however, that this young girl does not feel too safe around her neighbourhood. She travels on her own, and at each turn, the rhyming text reminds her to take note of the beauty in the things that she sees around her. The expression on her face also suggests fear, foreboding, and apprehension:

Until, finally, she arrives in this one place that brought out her sense of wonder. Throughout, the child is depicted to be on her own, apart from the dog at the very end of the story. She was not shown to engage with the people in her neighbourhood, but one thing that clearly provided her with sanctuary was this place with all the books: her community library.

While the rhyming text did not really work for me, I found the artwork interesting – especially in the last few pages when Louise is shown to lose herself in the books she borrowed and placed inside her little red trolley.

I would be interested to find out how other young readers responded to this story.

The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians

Written by: Carla Morris Illustrated by: Brad Sneed
Published by: Peachtree, 2007 Literary Award: Comstock Read Aloud Book Award (2008)
ISBN: 1561453919 (ISBN13: 9781561453917)
Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

This picturebook here is clearly an ode to one of my favourite people in the world: librarians! This young boy named Melvin is said to live in the library – primarily because he spends so much time there that he practically lives there.

He does seem to have an insatiable appetite for information – he reads practically everything. And for each new flight of fancy that hits him, the wonderful librarians – each one of them with their own respective skills and talents (one is a whiz at computers while the others seem to find just the right book he didn’t even realize he needed) – would provide him with the information he requires.

Melvin grew up to be an immensely learned young man, and at every milestone in his life, the librarians were there throughout to cheer for him and to provide him with the information he needs to enable him to succeed.

While others may find the message to be quite heavy handed – I just found it to be so much fun! I love the idea of a young boy regarding the librarians as his mentors, and of these amazingly dedicated individuals who went over and above the call of duty to provide Melvin the inspiration, information, and support he needed so that he could pay it forward eventually when he became an adult.

This is truly a heartwarming tale that is a lovely tribute to wonderful librarians everywhere.