Her own library card.

Grace has strep. Again. Putting aside my worries about what the since-January roller coaster of strep-mono-strep means, I enjoyed a day with her yesterday. She feels basically fine but could not go to school until she’d been on the antibiotics for 24 hours (this time I was more forceful with the nurse and asked that she not prescribe the antibiotic that could kill Whit if he ingests it – so Grace is on zithromax). Grace’s one request for the day was to go to the library and get her own library card.

So, just after 9:00, we walked into the doors of the library. Up to the third floor we went.

Grace filled out her very first form. Other than her zip code, she knew it all herself. This was the first time she ever signed her own name. We talked about that for a while. Admittedly, her signature looks an awful lot like her regular writing at this point.

As you can see.

Grace had a specific book she wanted to look up, and so she did. I marveled, again, at how intuitively children seem to interact with computers (most of all with Apple products, in my experience). As she searched for the book she wanted, I walked up and down the aisles, my finger trailing along the book spines, seeing so many familiar titles. Island of the Blue Dolphins. Tuck Everlasting. Terabithia. The House with the Clock in its Walls. Little Women. The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The Phantom Tollbooth. Jacob Have I Loved. A Wrinkle in Time.

Oh … I could have spent all day there. I was seven again, and falling into a new world every time I opened a book, discovering the magic of fiction, beginning what has become a life-long love affair. I could practically remember where I was when I read each of the books, on my stomach on the floor by my childhood bedroom’s bay windows, curled on the off-white couch on my grandparents’ screened-in porch, on the creaky backyard swinging bench at my other grandparents’ house. I finally stopped exclaiming “Gracie!” and making her look at the book that was triggering my memories at that moment, because her eye-rolling reaction showed me I was just interrupting her personal agenda.

On our way downstairs, we stopped on the second floor for me to grab a book, and we had an impromptu lesson on the Dewey Decimal System. I was surprised that I remembered anything, but it came right back, and Grace seemed fascinated. All of my library love flooded over me as I stood in the silent, sunlit stacks, pointing to small white labels with typewritten numbers, explaining to Grace in a whisper how knowledge itself is categorized.

Grace checked out all by herself. I’ve decided on a general rule of four or five books at a time, and she also picked out two Star Wars books for Whit.


And she proudly carried her stash out into the day. I couldn’t help welling up with tears, looking at this so-old-and-so-young face, knowing that her own library card, signed in her own hand, is in her pocket. I felt as though she had just gotten her own personal key to the grand carnival of knowledge. She walked out of that building having had her own independent introduction to this universe, whose neat Dewey decimal categorization, as she would someday learn, belies its sheer complexity and depth.

We went immediately home and she pulled on yoga pants and got into bed with her books. Is this child a mini me or what? A day of reading and libraries is a great day. She can stay.

25 thoughts on “Her own library card.”

  1. I’ve always loved to read, too. Miss D. is becoming quite the avid reader and I’m so pleased.

    I think I’ll be depressed if Miss M. doesn’t love books as much as I do. There’s nothing like sharing a book you loved as a kid with your own child! Miss D. and I are into Ramona right now and it’s so much fun.

  2. Aside from the yoga pants (there was no such label back in my kiddie days) she’s a mini-ME and I haven’t ever met her! This post made me so jealous of you both! To spend a day surrounded by children’s lit? Heaven. And just to marvel at the wonders of a library again sounds amazing.

    If my one-day child wants to spend her day off at a library I will consider myself and my mothering a huge success. Happy reading!

  3. This post made me so happy! And it makes me want to bring my Julia out TODAY to the library! She’s not so accomplished a reader yet that she takes books to her room and reads to herself, but oh! How we love books! I used to work in the children’s department of a beautiful, private bookstore–you know? The kind with the cozy chairs and nooks that say, “Grab a book. Relax. Peruse. Enjoy”. And kiddy-lit? The absolute best! Thanks for this.

  4. How lovely. When I was her age, I started at A and work my way around! In high school I worked at our town library for five years. My mother was a librarian there. My son and I have lots of library memories…we just chuckled about our Rodney Rat story this past weekend. Library love never dies.

  5. I love the moment of recognition – when we see the us in them.

    I took my toddler to the library for the first time this weekend, and while she did not get her own library card, it was a memorable trip. It marks the beginning of our wonderful journey to these different worlds and realities together.

  6. This is an occasion to remember, getting her own library card! I spent so many hours at the public library as a child. It’s just magic, the promise of so many books to read.

  7. No, I had no idea. That’s just how clueless I am. Sadly, this is true in most matters of important news. However I can definitely fill you in on anything in the last few US Weeklys. Pathetic, my engagement with the world, I tell you.

  8. What a neat memory and connection point. I’ve struggled with my oldest, who at 11 is just beginning to discover the wonderful world of books – and not in the way I would have scripted. My younger, who is 6, shows much more self-direction and self-motivation to read. I’ve had to learn to relax and let them find and follow their own agendas not mine. Your list of books evoked memories for me too – and like you – I know where I was when I read most of those. But I have to be okay with them turning their noses up at Little House on the Prairie and choosing a biography of Taylor Swift instead – at least some of the time. They have their own memories to make. If they involve books and libraries – that will make me happy.

  9. lol I have seen that eye roll many times at the library or Borders from my oldest. 🙂 Want to hear something really sad? About two years ago, I took my son to one of the local libraries to work on a report. Totally excited to teach him about the Dewey decimal system, I helped him look up the call numbers and headed to the juvenile book collection. At once I noticed something wasn’t adding up, so I found a librarian to ask about why the numbers weren’t in order. Her answer: “Oh, we don’t use the decimal system here. We arrange everything by topic, so it’s easier for patrons to find their books.” Easier?! Definitely not. Thank goodness our main library still uses it! 🙂

  10. I cannot CANNOT wait for Lil Mil to be old enough to go to the library and check out books. I lived at the library when i was little. I’d go every week, check out this huge stack of books, read them sitting on the backstairs of my house or in the bath, and return them all (read!) for more the next week. I wish I had nothing to do but read a book. Or a stack of books. In the bath. Ahhh. Hey, maybe Grace can read MY book in a couple years! Let’s just hope it’s finished by the time she’s a tween….

  11. Library Love. A great term…

    I did live at the Osterville Free Library for most of my elementary school days and loved it more than words can tell. Thanks for bringing the memories back in one big woosh.

    And my dear daughter, in her teens, does love nothing more than a bookstore – she is fortunate enough to be able to purchase her books, and does so frequently. Nothing makes me happier than when all three of us are sitting around reading.

    And Lindsey, I can quote both People and Us. Very, very sad. But that newspaper is so depressing sometimes…

  12. This is crazy Lindsey! I have the EXACT same post started! Hannah and I yesterday went to the library yesterday and seriously, I took the EXACT same pictures! Of her card, of her signature, of her at a computer, of her walking out with her books! Woah! And I also was amazed by the memories that washed over me from many quiet days flipping through books in our local library. Hannah was in heaven, could have spent all day there and if it weren’t for impatient Luke, we would have.

    I hope Grace is feeling better and enjoying her books. And now, I’ll alter my post a bit so you won’t think I plagiarized yours! 🙂

  13. I can’t wait to share the library card experience with my kids, there is nothing like it. I still remember getting mine, and the responsibility that seemed to come with it. What a special day!

  14. brings back great memories of the library in my home town… I still love the library. One of the sad things about my move is that I currently work right across from my local library..making it most convenient.

  15. It’s so important that we keep this tradition alive, as I fear that libraries may become antiquated if future generations grow up without experiencing their magic and solace, like secular cathedrals.

  16. I grew up in a house with two parents who did not speak English, and although they insisted school was important, I did not get any help in any of it due the language barrier. I don’t think I ever saw them read one single book. Yet, in 2nd grade, I begged them to take me to the public library so I could check out the book my teacher was reading to us (Ramona Quimby, Age 8) and was hooked ever since. The simple act of taking me, week after week, to the library, and allowing me to spend all the time I wanted there, was probably the best (educational) gift my Dad could’ve given me. Fast forward 20 years…a Reading teacher for 13 years, 3 of those spent as a librarian (“media specialist, thank you very much”) at the school. (SMILE)

  17. I love to read. I love reading what my children read so even now that most of them are adults. I am having a bit of a problem with the 15 y/o’s new preoccupation with zombie books but they are interesting.

    Hope Grace feels better soon!

  18. Oh I felt this post, oh how I love a library. Unfortunatley our own community library is somewhat lacking and slow to get new titles, which is a source of endless frustration for me. My oldest (now 4) got his first library card when he was 2, and it’s been a whole lot of fun ever since. It’s always entertaining to see his selection of books and I always insist on selecting one or two myself, just so we have a bit of variety beyond endless books about trucks and dirt.

    But I also found myself smiling at your list of books. A wrinkle in time. Oh, I LOVED that book. I’m looking forward to reading it again one day with my son.

  19. When I was in college my wallet got stolen out of my purse. I didn’t care about anything in it. Excpt for my first library card. My name was written in my mother’s hand because I was too young to write legibly yet. I can still picture it, and feel the laminated paper, and see the hand-held pen scanner that the librarian used, and hear the scuffing of book spines against metal shelving. Losing that card broke my heart. But I’m inspired knowing that new young bookworms are finding their ways into libraries every day. Thanks for this touching post.

  20. Library Happiness! What an expression on your daughter’s face in that last photo – she is clearly delighted with her books and quite pleased with herself. Thank you for this post, Lindsey. It brought back wonderful memories of my daughter’s discovery of the library (and my own).

Comments are closed.