Woody’s new novel “The Butterfly Tree” is available at Amazon (click here), other online retailers, and orderable at all bookshops.
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My rite-of-passage adventure with my 5-year-old granddaughter, Maya, taking her to get her first library card, as chronicled here last week, prompted a torrent of notes from readers.
As a different Maya, the poet Angelou, once wrote: “I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.” Indeed, it seems childhood memories of the library never leave us as.
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“We moved an average of once per year when I was growing up,” Wayne Kempton shares. “As soon as we arrived in a new town, Mom would take me to the local library. Mom loved reading and education, and she passed along those loves to my sister and me.”
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“I also remember getting my first library card!!” wrote Sheila McCollum. “My great aunt was a librarian and though she did not participate with me getting my card, she quietly observed. When my mom and I left the library that day, each with almost too many books to carry, we were two happy girls! Countless visits ensued to our favorite place, the Oxnard Public Library!”
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“Your column entitled ‘It was a big day for a little girl’ touched my heart deeply!!!” Michele Dunn shared. “I take my 3- and 4-year-old grandchildren each Wednesday to story time at the Hill Road branch and have interacted with Miss Veronica—she is a jewel!”
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“My mom walked me to Fillmore Library and helped me get my card,” Noreen Berrington fondly recalls. “Many lovely walks there!!! I still walk there!”
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“I am a lifelong reader,” Sharon Marshak began. “I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, by two Holocaust Survivors with limited English speaking skills. So my mother took my brother and me to the library almost every day. To help herself, and us children, learn English, she would read children’s books out loud.
“Today, many foreigners learn English by watching TV, but we didn’t even have one at that time (I was born in 1955). Both of my parents’ educations were cut short due to the war, but my mother went to night school as an adult; got her high school diploma; and applied for a New York Library job. Her first assignment was at the main Brooklyn Public Library. It was a two-bus-each-way commute for her, but she loved it.
“Neighborhoods in Brooklyn were like small towns back then. All the kids went to the same schools; the shops were family owned, many by local people; so everyone knew my mother! As a teenager I had a part time job there.
“I left Brooklyn after college and moved to Santa Monica. I went to Northridge University to get my teaching credential and Masters degree, worked as a teacher’s aide and a few nights a week worked in the Santa Monica library.
“To this day I love libraries. I raised my two children to appreciate all that libraries have to offer and now try to do the same with my six grandchildren.”
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“I grew up loving libraries, looking upon them as a safe place to escape the realities of my childhood’s difficult life,” Dave Stancliff shares. “Escaping into a book has always been my favorite form of entertainment.”
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“I don’t remember exactly when my mom took me to get my first library card,” Matt Bell reminisced, “but I do remember riding my bike to the library and discovering Jules Verne. Couldn’t put those books down. Thanks, Mom, for helping me get my card.”
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Essay copyrights Woody Woodburn
Woody’s new novel “The Butterfly Tree” is now available in paperback and eBook at Amazon (click here), other online bookstores, and is orderable at all bookshops.
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Woody writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn.