Literacy Milestone: Checking Out Her First Book from the School Library

Last week my daughter started Kindergarten. Which is a literacy milestone in its own right, of course. She was a bit nervous at first, but seems to be settling in well. She was fortunate to have several kids she already knew in her class. 

After orientation, a friend who knows of my interests introduced our family to the school librarian, Ms. H. The librarian wasn't ready to check out books yet, but gave us a quick tour of the library. When I went to pick my daughter up on Friday she asked if we could go to the library again. The library was closed, but we ran into Ms. H, and she was happy to let us, along with my daughter's friend and his mom, in to have a look. 

Ms. H. still wasn't quite ready to check out books to the kids (some sort of technical issue involving A/C had thrown things off schedule). However, it turned out that after talking with us for a few minutes, she couldn't resist recommending a couple of titles for each child. And so it came about that not only did my daughter check out her first book from the school library, she was the first child this school year to check out a book at all. This seemed fitting.

We came home with The Aminal by Lorna and Lecia Balian and Seneca by Karen Lee Baker, the first of what I'm sure will be many books checked out of this library over the next few years. This milestone means a lot to be because I ADORED my elementary school library. I used to go in and shelve books before school in sixth grade. I still cherish two books given to me as gifts by Mrs. Tuttle, the wonderful librarian. I've hoped that my daughter's experience would be equally positive, and we are off to a good start so far. Of course we'll continue visiting the public library, too, I'm sure. We are fortunate in our libraries. 

© 2015 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.