My Journey from Books with lots of pages to Books with just a few

‘What child unable to sleep on a warm summer night hasn’t thought he saw Peter Pan’s sailing ship in the sky? I will teach you to see that ship.’

Robert Cotroneo, When a Child on a Summer Morning

As my childhood days fell behind, the picture books and fairy tales that made up those years also dropped out with a definite finality of ways that get shed with age. I forgot about the joy of reading each picture as much as each word was read, the wonder that vibrant illustrations could evoke, the learning that simple stories convey.

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Bookworm is a Children’s Library firstly and primarily. 90% of its books are picture books. As I started spending days and hours in this space, these books made up the walls, the nooks, the air, and every space of my work. Through listening and hearing others speak passionately about picture books that they had read and had a personal connection with, I felt my mind once again open up to the joy and wonderment that each page in an 8-10 page book, can uncover.

I learnt to analyse the simplicity AND the complexity within a picture book. To look at illustrations in all their detailing and to look at illustrations as a whole. I learnt to look at stories from different viewpoints and listened while these viewpoints were broken down and argued out in meetings.

Daytime Visions by Isol, a recent addition to the collection, captured my attention instantly. While at first glance one would take it to be a simple alphabet early concept book, the complexity and imagination captured on each page is magical!

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The Day I became a Bird by Ingrid Chabbert, is another of my all time favourites. It portrays love in a simple tender subtlety that will capture the heart of even the most diehard cynics.

We live in the word, and the word is one of the ways we have to reach across to each other.” (Elizabeth Alexander)

At Bookworm, you do not have to search or research to gain knowledge and understanding. You just have to listen, and listen and absorb. The space AND the people who make up the team, provide knowledge and information beyond imagination. And the books of course! The books that line each available space, whisper their magic as soon as you reach out and grasp one.

Bookworm breaks all ideas of a traditional library. During my first month here, my mind whirred around the thousands of voices and ideas, shouts and laughter that bounced back and forth. It is NOT quiet. And it is NOT still. The four programs that make up its work, constantly buzz with the energy needed to sustain them. Boxes of books travel back and forth from school, to community, and back to the library. However within this milieu, there are pockets of space and time where one can just sit and read and reflect.

I know my journey with books is just at its beginning and it is exciting to know that there is always so much more to read: from books, from people, from the Team, and from myself.

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