In every room at the library , the air was ruffled – there were children and they had come back !
Six readers from our Alban Couto Community Library ( ACCL) with Wendy our own library educator, and parent Akshi came to Bookworm library.
It was a joy to have children as young as three years to thirteen years take on the responsibility of selecting, discussing, gathering books so that their library in Aldona would have a fresh collection for the Summer.
When the children came in, they were masked , quiet as a consequence and knew not what to expect. Anandita and Jewel led them on a Treasure Hunt to discover the shelves and enjoy peeking into some books. In that process of discovery they spotted authors/ titles/ images that caught their eye and reaffirmed for us the power of time for browsing in the library.
Every tile, every window, every door frame seemed brighter because they came.
When the children were asked if they would like to play some more games ( some amazing non – fiction and speed browsing games were awaiting them) they said they would love to browse the stacks, read some books and begin to put their collection together. Our work in every sense of the word is done. Reading joy emanated from each of them.
On every shelf in the library, the books were being explored, pulled out , blurbs read, author names called out for resonance with another and the books were happy !
As they browsed and stacked books for taking and asked questions about titles or themes of interest I was struck by how thoughtful they were. There was selecting for self , of course , but there was already the larger imagination for readers in the library , who may visit the ACCL and who may have diverse interests. Some of the questions and comments led me to look carefully at our collection and think about how we can further refine the stacks so that children’s interests are immediately responded to. As always it was heartening to note the deep interest in non – fiction that permeated, the excitement about fantasy and the listening when Anandita and I privileged some books over others but mostly the trust and the love to be kindred together in the library.
We are very aware that each of these readers are born in their own homes, amongst parents and elders who privilege reading but we also know that in becoming part of a community library they are growing even more, widening their reading horizons and experiences and becoming more open. Anandita, remarked that the children were all so lovely, not one of them had even the tiniest hint of a negative strain and I responded by saying, “ they are library children”. Everything else emerges therefrom.
Thank you parents of our ACCL for the trust. Thank you Wendy and Blaise for holding the library with such grace and commitment and thank you Sandeep for this most inspired of ideas to connect the two libraries and give the children a morning of joy. As always thank you Bookworm team of Geeta, Amruta, Pranita, Jewel , Seasha, Alexis and Anandita – without you our own library would be still.
In every room in the library , the Bookworm team was lighter – suddenly the months of stillness were being broken again !
But mostly thank you Dr Maria Aurora Couto for the vision to have a library in Aldona because our future does rest with our children and you inspire us.