I know National Library Week isn’t until next month. But I recently received my author copies of my May Love Inspired,
Winning the Teacher’s Heart, and that made me think of libraries. I generally donate a large print copy of my books to my local library.
Libraries have played a large part in my lifelong love of reading. I
struggled with reading in first and grades. Since I had a September
birthday, I was one of the youngest kids in my class, and I had trouble
sounding out the words. The summer after second grade, when my next
youngest brother was big enough to make the walk, my mom put my youngest
brother in the stroller and took my three brothers and me to the
LaSalle Public Library in Niagara Falls every week to get our own books.
That fall, a couple of weeks into third grade, I moved from the lowest
reading group, not to the middle group, but right to the top one.
My next library was the Stephens Memorial Library in Attica, NY, where we moved the summer before I started sixth grade. At first, it seemed like a come down from the Niagara Falls library. The library was in a house on Main Street. But, it was here that I discovered wonderful books like
The Secret Garden, still one of my favorite books. And I did research for my high school papers, with another discovery, inter-library loan. The library “house” was painted white when I used it. The addition with the more library look was added when I was in high school.
T
he Nassau Free Library in the Village of Nassau, NY, was our first family library. It, too, was in a renovated house. Don’t you love the rendering from the library’s Facebook page? Like, my mother, I took my kids there from the time they were toddlers. And the year my husband went back to college to pick up a drafting certificate and had time home during the day, he gained the distinction of being the only father who regularly attended the daytime weekly story hour.
My current library is the RCS (Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk) Community Library. It recently moved to more spacious quarters in the old American Legion building in town. My big discovery at the RCS library is borrowing eBooks, which sadly means I don’t visit the actual library building as often as I did with my other libraries.
What are the libraries of your life?
Local businesses and individuals contribute to buy the forms and other supplies to create the sculptures. Potential artists submit sketches of their designs on a photocopy of what the undecorated train engine forms will look like. This year 20 designs were chosen and, since Memorial Day, the completed sculptures have been displayed along the streets of Ravena, Coeymans, Coeymans Hollow, and Alcove (the village and hamlets in our township). The week after Labor Day, the sculptures will be auctioned off at the Coeymans Marina and the proceeds will go toward youth programming for the community. Last year's auction funded a movie projector for the town's summer movie nights. The sculptures pictured are the ones I drive by on my way to the grocery store and church.
My next Love Inspired romance Holiday Homecoming (available now for preorder) features a community event, too, an ecumenical Christmas Pageant on Christmas Eve. Pastor Connor Donnelly is done with romance. After proposing to his high school sweetheart, Natalie Delacroix, five years ago—and being turned down—he’s putting all his time and energy into his community. He’s determined to make the Christmas pageant he’s directing a success. But family and friends are set on fixing up the good-looking bachelor in time for the holidays. And now that Natalie is back in Paradox Lake—and helping with the pageant—they might just succeed. Because working so closely with Natalie stirs up old feelings…and Connor starts to hope for a second chance with the one who got away.
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