Thanks for joining me for this detour into library love. Hit the ❤️ and let me know you were here!
Libraries are the great equalizer, providing access to knowledge for all. Libraries nurture. Libraries uplift and stimulate, shelter and educate.
In writing my memoir, FRECKLED: Growing up Wild in Hawaii, I was able to see how many times "going to the library" provided a destination for our family when it was rainy and we were homeless. The library was a place of solace when bullied, a place to shelter in bad weather, and a launch pad where worlds opened up to us from a remote island in the Pacific, at a time when Kauai had no TV, radio, and we didn’t even own a phone.
Here's a snippet:
1975, Age 11, Kaua`i, Hawaii
I’m not only a redheaded, hippie bookworm, but I wear cheap, ugly glasses.
I’ve been having trouble with my vision for years. We can only afford the glasses Welfare will pay for, and there are four frame choices, each uglier than the last. My latest pair was the best of the options, and has lenses shaped like stop signs in thick purple plastic. In class at Hanalei School, I sit as close to the board as I can get and only put them on when I have to.
I go for yet another eye checkup an hour away in Lihue with old Dr. Yee, who’s been upgrading my glasses to stronger every six months since I was nine. This time, he pulls my mom aside for a whispered discussion. I frown, looking at them through the giant metal lens contraption I’m still stuck behind.
“What’s going on?” I say.
“Nothing, hon. We just need to see a specialist,” Mom says, and there’s a funny tightness in her voice that puts me on alert.
Looks much the same as it always did!
On the way home, we stop by Kapa`a Library. Mom parks under an ironwood tree and sends me in alone.
“I need a break,” she says. “You go in while I take a little nap.”
She looks pale and closes her eyes, leaning back the seat as we wind down all the windows in so the breeze passes through the Rambler and blows across her. The faithful old car is quite rusty now, the upholstery on its roof blooming in gray mildew patterns.
I worry she needs a break because of the specialist I’m going to have to see about my eyes; but maybe it’s just because she’s pregnant.
I head into the small concrete cube of a library building, painted feng-shui red. The familiar sourish smells of dusty books and Mr. Clean fill my nostrils with a relaxing perfume as I head for the Adult section, where I'm working my way through the shelves alphabetically.
(I finished the entire CHILDREN/YA side of the library when I was ten. I'm seriously worried I'm going to run out of books here, but for now I've still got several good sized shelves to go.)
At the checkout, the librarian, Mrs. Rapozo, eyes me over her half glasses. She opens a stack of books topped by Erica Jong and James Joyce, since I’ve got to the J section. “Fear of Flying. Hmm. Does your mother know you’re reading this?”
“Sure. She doesn’t believe in censorship.”
Mrs. Rapozo tightens her lips, and I know I’m in for a good one. I’ve already devoured the Jackie Collins section a ways back, in spite of Mrs. Rapozo’s audible sniffs and attempts to catch Mom’s eye.
She starts the car when I get back in with my giant stack of books.
We drive home, the windows down. There’s no music because Kaua`i’s too small to have its own radio station and the steep mountains prevent reception—the same reason there’s no TV on the island, either. Which is okay, because I can read.
I lean my face on the window frame and watch the ocean stream by, the flashing lines of coconut trees, the swishing cane fields and corduroy rows of pineapple. I do my favorite driving daydream as my hand surfs the air beside the old Rambler.
The car is pulled by six galloping black horses, and I alternately stand on the hood and drive them, or climb onto their backs and urge them to go faster, cracking a rawhide whip over their heads. Sometimes, I lean down to unhitch one of them and let Bonny drive the team while I drop to the horse’s back and gallop out in front.
I can feel everything about the daydream: the surge of the horse’s muscles, silky under my bare legs; the wind cutting my eyes so I have to squint; the way the leather straps squeak with the strain of our speed. I breathe the warm perfume of horse that surrounds me, and love the way the animal pours on more speed when I bend alongside his neck and whisper “Go!” in his ear, just like Alec urging on the Black Stallion.
Without the library, I would never have met The Black and ridden a horse in my mind… or on the page.
That moment when I visit a school library and find my books
Finding my books in libraries has been a cherry on the cake of fulfillment for me as an author.
I owe them so much. (I wonder, now, if my lively imagination would have thrived with the onslaught of digital media that kids are subjected to nowadays. Hard to know.)
Libraries continue be a “great equalizer” providing a refuge for those in need of mental, emotional and even physical shelter.
In these challenging times, when every federally-funded program is under siege, if you have a chance—speak up and donate to your local library.
Stop by and use it.
Get an app for your phone to borrow digitally, and get free audiobooks too!
Encourage a librarian. After all, they have a degree that they dedicated themself to getting just to make sure we have all the knowledge and information at our fingertips that we might need.
Donate if your library is in need (and I guarantee it is!)
Pass this post on to encourage libraries and all who love them to hang in there.
Don’t forget to hit the ❤️ so Substack and I know you were here!
The library was my best friend as a kid. I remember checking out several books each week and reading all of them. I don't think it ever occurred to us to buy a book. We weren't as poor as you guys, but we didn't have any extra for books, that I do know. And what a lifesaver they were.
I went to my local library when I first learned to read. I systematically read through every book on each shelf of the children's section. Now I download books from my local libraries ever since my husband bought my first e-reader. He got tired of looking at all the library books piled next to the bed!
The library was my best friend as a kid. I remember checking out several books each week and reading all of them. I don't think it ever occurred to us to buy a book. We weren't as poor as you guys, but we didn't have any extra for books, that I do know. And what a lifesaver they were.
I went to my local library when I first learned to read. I systematically read through every book on each shelf of the children's section. Now I download books from my local libraries ever since my husband bought my first e-reader. He got tired of looking at all the library books piled next to the bed!