The Library Upstairs

There was a library upstairs in our old farmhouse where daddy had built three rooms and some closet space in the attic. The library was in the middle room. It was just an antique bookcase with doors that was filled with books, but my parents called it the library. There were a lot old school textbooks, but there were also some real treasures-- Heidi, Little Women, the Bobbsey Twins and more. I spent hours at the library upstairs, read those wonderful books, even pretended to catalog them by penciling in made-up call numbers in the front of them. I loved the school library too, and when I was in the 6th grade I dreamed that a book written by me was in that library. In college I was a Work-Study student in the library, shelving books and reading shelves to make sure the books were in the correct order. Then I worked there on staff later and learned to catalog. It took years but I finally became a librarian. I work in a community college library now, and I've just started writing children's picture books. Can you guess where I'm going to send copies of them? No, not the library upstairs, that one is gone, as is all my family back home. But that's where it all started-- at the library upstairs.