Libraries Are Where You Can Read Any Book You Want 

Back in the early 80s, I used to spend a lot of time at the Graves Public Library in Mendota, Illinois. We were commuting to a school in town from a farming township several miles away, so after school, my brothers, sister, and I would walk from school to the library and wait for my parents to pick us up. We spent hours in the children’s library almost on a daily basis, and were sometimes there until and even after it closed.

I will always remember Mrs. Joan Gehant, the children’s librarian. I’m sure she wondered why we spent so much time at the library, but she never made us feel unwelcome. She brought us cookies and kept us busy by asking us to draw pictures of book covers for her displays. I have no idea how many book covers I drew, or how many books I read over those two years. When I’d read my way through the children’s library, Mrs. Gehant let me go upstairs and choose from the adult library.

One particular day, I was sitting on the fire escape stairs in the children’s library, reading one of those books on “our changing bodies.” I was embarrassed, so I was hiding it inside a more respectable novel. Mrs. Gehant wandered over and asked me what I was reading, and I showed her the cover of the novel. Unfortunately, not much got by Mrs. Gehant, and she said, “No, I mean the book you’re hiding.”

I was mortified. Sheepishly, I showed her the “our changing bodies” book. As she looked at it, I prepared for the worst. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, she squinted her eyes and set her face and said, “Brigid, you don’t ever have to hide anything you’re reading. You can read any book you want.”

My relief at that moment was enormous; the lesson she taught me even more significant, so now I am passing on Mrs. Gehant’s wise words to you and hopefully your children. Please think of her the next time you go to the library.—Brigid Pasulka

About Brigid Pasulka

Brigid Pasulka is the author of the novel Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True. It won the 2010 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. The Sun and Other Stars - A Novel will be published in February. Pasulka runs the writing center at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School.