School libraries

Forgive the capitalization here! My l key isn't working so well and having to copy and paste every time is tedious. Sticking to lowercase for now. 

I was recently looking through one of my old favorite school library books on the internet archives. It was called Guide to Owning a Poodle. The pages were super glossy and of course, featured pretty pictures of poodles! Back then, while I found many interesting library books, I mainly stuck to reading them on bus rides home. If library day was also pretzel day, I would often read the book on the bus with a soft pretzel in hand.

I have many memories of my school library. The top floor housed the bookshelves and some computer cubbies; the bottom floor was a computer lab and group work rooms. (In fifth grade two of the boys liked rummaging through the drawers for junk in one of those rooms as we worked to complete a power point presentation.) Maybe it's why it's such a prominent location in my dreams. I remember watching a Hallmark version of Alice in Wonderland during library time. Maybe that's also why my dream world reminds me so much of Alice (in addition to the dark color palette)...funny the things you remember!

In elementary days, the library "teacher" had an odd rule of sitting in a circle, boy girl boy girl. She'd read an often boring book, then we were free to browse...unless it was the first day, in which we'd decorate our card stock library cards. My best friend and I would often race to books about math games and take turns reading from them. Those books taught us about the magic of writing words on calculators!

Other books I liked in the library: Wacky Wednesday (a Dr. Seuss style picture book); American Girl books (my first was Kirsten but I discovered the worlds of Molly and Samantha through the school library); a book called The TV Kid, remembered for its scenes of the kid getting bit by a snake; one called Draw where I copied instructions on a tiny notepad and actually made 3D art successfully; and others I can't recall. Said BFF would check out a book called How to Beat Your Dad at Chess. I think sometimes it worked! 

Althought I went to a K-8 school, library time ended after fifth grade. library time was now time for study hall, gossip, and looking at our crushes' homes on Google Maps. Good times, but different times. Today I spend lots of time at my local library. The books aren't quite the same, but I have discovered many good ones. 

long live libraries!