Mrs Marshall was a monster. She should never have been a school librarian. She had set ideas of what children should read. She consistently underestimated their abilities, handing them books she chose, rather than helping them explore new worlds.
The first book Amberly was intrigued with was War and Peace. She was six years old and delighted with the pictures the words drew in her mind. Of course she didn’t understand it all, she was six for goodness sake, but she understood enough to want to read more.
It was taken off her, and she was handed a Janet and John book. Five words per book. Boring. She carefully put J&J back on the shelf and picked up the heavy tome.
Mrs Marshall swooped, grabbed it, put it on a high shelf and banned her from the library … for two long years.
Amberly was bereft. When reading time came, she had to read her exercise book. She wrote stories in one and read them.
When Mrs Marshall found out, she took that off her and made her read her maths book. So Amberly dreamed, dreamed of the stories she would write.
She asked her Mum to buy War and Peace, so she could read it at home. In her wisdom, Mum did.
When Amberly was ten, she left the school. Before going, she said goodbye to W&P checking to see who had borrowed it. There were no names on the card. It was the loneliest book in the library.
Just love this story, so delicately rendered with great “essential truths”.
Lovely story. Glad to see her persevere in spite of a misguided teacher. Peace…
thanks for the story. i love libraries, and the one in my hometown had those cards, and yes, there were such lonely books.
What a wonderful story. It’s awful how adults can push their own insecurities and limitations on children.
I like the idea of lonely books, and how they relate to lonely people.
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