Journeying with Jacque

My Life in the Library

“Diego knew the dragon was alive the moment he touched it. Even though only a statue, and only eighteen inches tall, Diego felt a pulsing heartbeat when he accepted it from the author.”

So the book, Diego’s Dragon: Spirits of the Sun, begins. The author is Kevin Gerard and he visited our school, Desert Springs Middle School, many times to give author talks and promote his series, Connor and the Crossworlds. I was the school librarian and my Follett representative suggested that I call Kevin to visit our school. For many years, Kevin provided free author visits. We turned the visits to school wide events with lots of fun activities.  Then Kevin started a new fantasy series, Diego’s Dragon, and included me as one of the characters, Mrs. Coble the school librarian.

My character appears on page 3: “She waved and smiled. Diego felt his knees turn to jelly all over again. He wanted her to look back. He watched her so intently he barely heard Mrs. Coble calling to him.

‘Diego!’ she yelled for the fourth time. ‘Come over here with your dragon. We have to get some pictures. Aren’t you excited? You’ll be in the newspaper.’

Diego reached through the crowd of students, wrapped his finger around the dragon’s body, and left a crowd of unhappy admirers in his wake. Some of them left the library; others followed him over to the desk.

‘Now, we want to get a few pictures of you alone with the dragon,’ said Mrs. Coble, ‘and then of course some pictures of you with Mr. Sullivan.’

The students began ribbing Diego about his sudden stardom. He took it well, but now that Racquel had left, he just wanted to go home. He couldn’t get her out of his head.

‘Smile, Diego,’ said Mrs. Coble, alarming him. ‘Hold your dragon up. Good, now once again, smile for the camera.’

The picture session seemed to drag on for a month, first by himself, then with some friends, with Mrs. Coble, with Mr. Sullivan and Mrs. Coble, and finally a few with some other students. Diego began to get bored until he stood next to Mr. Sullivan for a set of pictures (Gerard).”

Okay, so there was a bit of typecasting involved…I perhaps went a little overboard with taking pictures but I wanted the students to be able to have a photo to remember the author and book event.

My love of libraries began early. My mother took me to the Beaumont Public Library the summer before I started Kindergarten to get my first library card. My passion for reading began early. Before I got my library card, my mother would let me pick out a Little Golden Book when she got groceries. I don’t remember ever learning to read; I just always could. In school my favorite subject was reading and I loved the Dick and Jane books as well as the orange phonics workbook that we used in first grade.

Reading was important in the McLeod family. My grandmother encouraged my mother to read. She always told her that she would never be lonely if she had a book. The presents that I remember most from my grandmother were books (Gary and I continued this tradition with the younger generations in our family). I still have a book that my grandmother gave me when I was probably about eight, Glenda of Oz; it was published in 1920. It was a magical book and I went to the library and checked out the rest of the series. (Of course, watching The Wizard of Oz was a yearly tradition growing up.)

Other fond library memories happened the summer before seventh grade. We had just moved to Coffeyville and hadn’t had a chance to make friends yet. We met the girl across the street and my sister Becky, our neighbor, and I began going to the library weekly. We would walk to the library, browse, check out our books, go across the street to Peter Pan and buy cherry limeades, then walk home. Two books that I remember reading that summer were The Red Planet by Robert Heinlein and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

While reading has always been part of my life, I decided to make it a big part of my career. I received a BSE in Elementary Education with specialties in Reading and Language Arts. Upon graduation I launched my 40 year career in education. I began as a Reading Specialist then taught 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th grades before spending over half of my career as the Teacher Librarian at Desert Springs Middle School. (I also have an MS in Secondary School Counseling and a Masters in Information and Library Science).

As the School Librarian, I strived to get students excited about books and reading and to provide them with the research and note taking skills necessary for future school success. I focused on making the library a welcome and inclusive space for all students and provided activities and programs that encouraged all students to actively participate.

I was a librarian during a time of significant change due to advances in technology. I started with DOS version of Follett as my library computer program, but at that time there were no computers available for teachers or students. We had the old wooden card catalog – typing those cards was an absolute nightmare.

I loved giving book talks and felt that we accomplished much by having students create original content based on quality research and note taking skills. One of my absolute favorite activities was the Ancient Civilizations Scavenger Hunt that the sixth grade teachers and I collaborated on using books only. I am really glad that I was able to be part of so many changes in the library world and feel very fortunate that I was able to turn my passion into my career.

Sources

Gerard, Kevin. Diego’s Dragon, Book One: Spirits of the Sun. Crying Cougar Press, 2013.