Parenting Guru: Gratitude for the School Librarian

In the increasingly digitized world of books, nothing can ever replace a good, old-fashioned school librarian, especially one who knows her stuff. While there may be a gazillion book reviews on Goodreads and while there may be thousands of Kindle ebook titles, a flesh and blood librarian has one advantage: She knows your child.

In the first grade class where I volunteer, three little boys will vie for the library's few Star Wars titles. Two children will beg for chapter books. Every level of reader will be happy to carry home a book from the very funny Elephant and Piggie series. Then the frenzy for books will die down and half the class will settle into chairs to read while the indecisive remainder flits to and fro, afraid to commit to any one book.

I see the librarian out of the corner of my eye, hunched over a bookshelf, a little boy by her side. He is a demanding customer and he wants a certain kind of book. Forget the Star Wars Early Reader books, forget the Elephant and Piggy series, forget anything in the Top 10. Forget that he may have just checked out 20 books from the public library yesterday. He wants the reward of finding The Perfect Book right here, right now.

What a pain, this child - my child. Just get anything, I mutter under my breath, while stamping due dates in books.

As the last of the children settle down with their books, my son is the last one standing, still without a book to carry home. Just as I'm about to put on my mom hat and count to three, he emerges from behind a bookshelf, victorious, holding the book in the air like a trophy.

"This book is right up your alley," I hear her say, as she trails behind him.

He plops the book down in front of me proudly. It's The Shaman's Apprentice, a story about healing plants and fits into his interest of alchemy and potions and chemistry. It's perfect and it's a Reading Rainbow book to boot. Bonus points.

Our librarian knows my son so well. He's so over the Magic Treehouse series but he wanted something about time travel and adventure, with a bit more edge and she paused for a moment, ran to the shelves and came back with what is now our favorite series du jour, The Time Warp Trio. The Time Warp Trio are like Jack and Annie's more rough and tumble cousins. When in one adventure, the Trio is confronted by a samurai called Owattabutt (insert laughter here), I knew my boys would be hooked.

She's like a game show contestant, our librarian. She has exactly 15 minutes to appease 22 pint sized game show hosts who pepper her with questions like, "I only want books about horses but I don't want that book or that book or that book," and "Where are the Syd Hoff books?" She's got to be quick and on her toes. She has to really know the children so she can guide them accordingly. It's a gift.

I like to think that I'm fairly knowledgeable about children's books, but there's a big gap between the time I was a child to the time I had my own children six year's ago. I missed a lot in between and that's where a seasoned school librarian fills in. She knows about books that span time, she knows the class curriculum, she knows kids -- and she knows your kid.

I have such gratitude for our school librarian because I know she offers something that can't be outsourced. And psst ... she also lets me override the maximum number of books we parent volunteers are allowed to check out.

Do you love your school librarian?

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Akemi Bourgeois is a Yahoo! Parenting Guru and mom to twin boys. They live in the Bay Area. She writes at Chalk and Cheese Chronicles and edits the blog, Mad About Multiples. She is an editor of at Technorati Women. Follow her on Twitter: svtwinmom.