This is a story about Mike, a sixth grade student who lives in Rowland, NC.
Mike’s dad brings him into the library on a Tuesday evening. There is a lot of tension between these two because Mike has an assignment due on Wednesday and he hasn’t even started. Furthermore, Mike’s not too happy about being hauled in to the library and embarrassed by his dad in front of the librarian.
Lolita is working that evening and she asks Mike to show her the assignment. It is a project about the human body and how it works. Mike is still bristling with a bad attitude, but Lolita pulls out the World Book Encyclopedia and shows him the entry on the human body. As soon as he finds the section with the transparent overlays of the skeletal, muscular and circulatory systems he’s intrigued. He decides to trace the skeletal system and Lolita loans him markers and highlighters to use to point out the different bones. He still needs to write a short paper about what he has learned so Lolita helps him find a couple of books from the Children’s Library to use for his research.
Lolita saw Mike’s dad in the library about a week later. The good news is that Mike made a B on his assignment. What’s even better than that is that Mike had the confidence to stand up and present his work to the class, something he had never been willing to do before.
Libraries change lives!
North Carolina Library Advocacy 