Love of Libraries

Last week was Literacy Week here in Bermuda, and I was invited to speak to high school students at Cedarbridge Academy. It was an eventful seven days--just two days before my visit, Cedarbridge hosted Bermudian author Nadia Aguiar (of The Lost Island of Tamarind wonderfulness). The week was capped off with a well-attended book fair in the island's capital. Very cool!

Here I am with two of Cedarbridge’s educators on the day of my talk. Check out the background. I was really impressed with the size of their school library. There were enough tall rows of bookshelves to fill the expansive, modernized space.

And there I go trying not to act as nervous as I truly was. (You’d think the fact that it was my birthday would've psyched me into giving those insecurities a strong karate chop! I blame it on the official-looking mic and podium.)

Truly, the awesome setting of my talk gave me flashbacks of my grammar and high school libraries. My schools’ libraries weren’t nearly as large (barely a quarter of the size of Cedarbridge’s), but just visiting a school library again took me back. In grammar school, I just remember feeling so pleased that all the bookshelves and book selections were tailor made for my height and my taste, respectively. It made me feel special. I know this sounds super hokey, but that’s the way it was for me.

And a few years later, when I didn’t feel like being “in the mix” of all the comings and goings in my high school hallways, I escaped to the library. Being around books always seemed to chillax me. As I got older, I substituted those library getaways with visits to local bookstores.

So, tell me. What do you remember about your school library?