This week I have been grappling professionally with the attacks that libraries all around the country are facing from loss of funding to bans on library books and programs. Libraries create readers and an educated, curious society.  I have trouble making sense of the challenges that have been thrown at our doorstep. To try to understand the place in which we find ourselves I always go to books to find solace. I found myself sitting in front of the library bookshelves thinking about how the library made me a reader. I started pulling books off the shelves until I was surrounded by a pile of books that started my reading journey. Books drew me to libraries or was it vice versa?  I decided that I would share some of the books I pulled off the shelves  with my students and ask them the question, What books made you a reader?  As you read you might want to ask yourself this question as well.

Sometimes a book stands out and it was Madeleine L’Engle’s, A Wrinkle in Time that I pulled out of the pile first . This book turned me into an avid reader. It was first published in 1962 and won the Newbery Medal.  I remember sitting in rapt attention as Meg and her brother Charles Wallace embarked on a journey through space and time to discover what had become of their father. It was much more than a fantastical science fiction adventure. This daring rescue helped Meg to discover her inner strength and the power of love.  I wanted so much to be like Meg.

Over sixty years have passed since she introduced us to the unforgettable characters and story that have made the book an enduring milestone in children’s literature.  Rereading the book. My curiosity was piqued to find out what inspired her. I discovered, not surprisingly, that she loved books and likened them to  stars―asking questions and proposing answers. They made her want to ask big questions―Why are we here? What is my place in the universe?―and let her imagination take flight.  Books kept her company, and soon, she began to write and share her own.

While reading about L’Engle I stumbled upon a quote that I would like to leave you with, it is  from a 1983 lecture at the Library of Congress entitled, Dare to be Creative!   “The first people a dictator puts in jail after a coup are the writers, the teachers, the librarians – because these people are dangerous. They have enough vocabulary to recognize injustice and to speak out loudly about it. Let us have the courage to go on being dangerous people.” 

I hope you will join me in being a dangerous person, to quote Madeline L’Engle. Libraries  create readers. Words have the power to make you think, to entertain you, and can change the world.  Libraries need all of us to be dangerous people NOW and stand up for them.  

Please help us protect the only source of federal funding for our nation’s 125,000 libraries, the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 

Here are two things you can do:

• Tell 5 people you know about the struggle libraries are facing.  Use social media.
• Contact your members of congress and tell them to support federal funding for libraries.

Libraries are not the enemy, they can help bridge the divide.

Debra Orado

Children’s Librarian

Witherle Memorial Library