The Library

I didn't grow up with many books in my home. I think there were two reasons:

#1. Books are expensive

#2. Books were unnatural

Allow me to explain.

#1. We didn't have a lot of money growing up. Our basic needs were provided. Food, clothing and shelter. Anything else was a luxury and books, along with toys, were most certainly a luxury. As a child, I recall few books in my home. The Bible, a children's Bible, a few other religious books and a couple of music books. I have a slight memory of a "See Jane Run" type of book. I loved that book. I don't have memories of feeling hungry or starving for food (just the normal hunger pains right before a meal!) but I do have memories of feeling hungry or starving for a book.

Thankfully, my Dad introduced us to the local library. Our neighbourhood library was only a few blocks away from our home and was located in a portable on the property of a Catholic school. Stepping into that library was always exciting. Where do I begin? I was starving to read but had no idea where to start. So, I just moved, picked up books that looked interesting and read. I loved reading Garfield books, Calvin and Hobbes, Amelia Bedelia and Curious George.

#2. I believe books were unnatural to my Dad because his parents came to Canada from Poland with very little. Can you imagine how cumbersome and expensive it would be to carry books across the ocean? They also just focused on providing those same basic needs of food, clothing and shelter for my Dad and his siblings. Books were a luxury. My Dad does recall having school books for schooling and,

"the odd newspaper and magazine if we could find one. We never bought them as we saved the money for food...if I ever had extra money, I would make the ten minute bike ride to the store down the road and buy a 10 cent comic book."

Aha! My love for comic books probably came from my Dad - who still loves reading his comics today - along with a variety of other reading material.

For my Mum, books were simply non-existent in the culture. They're just not part of the predominantly oral culture of Samoa. Samoans have a strong cultural tradition of passing on their history and culture orally and through their art. The written word came when the Europeans arrived and that didn't happen until the early 18th Century.

Mum recalls her family having a Bible but no books of their own. She also remembers books at school but they were mainly in English. The only book at home was the Bible - which was usually read daily. Growing up, we didn't read daily from scripture but we certainly read often and that tradition continues in my home today too.

You can see the cultural unfamiliarity with story reading in this comedic clip of a Samoan comedian who's playing a character named, "Uncle Sam". Uncle Sam is what we Samoans call a "FOB", or "Fresh Off the Boat". In New Zealand (probably Australia & America too), the younger generation always have a good laugh at watching our Samoan family members that have been isolated to island life, try to adapt to the ways of the Europeans or in Samoan, the "Palangi's", pronounced pah-lung-ee. FOBs haven't yet mastered the English language or the culture and often make humorous mix-ups. (note: I confess. I was raised by a FOB and am thus, second generation FOB)

Here's "Uncle Sam" (played by Tofiga Fepulea'i, member of the Laughing Samoans), sharing one of his stories on his "iBlog":

The public and school libraries opened my eyes to the world of books. I credit my school librarians for teaching me about different authors and getting me excited about choosing different books. Those weekly trips to the library at school were exciting for me and filled my hunger to read. The passion that came from the librarians was inspiring and I soaked up that passion like a sponge.

As a youth, I had the privilege of babysitting many different families. Those families had shelves of books in their homes and the children usually requested a bedtime story. As I didn't grow up with Peter Rabbit and Dr. Suess, I was as captivated as the children when I read these stories to them.

When I went off to University, the library would swallow me up. I was in awe of how many books were in one place. How could I possibly read them all? Well, that was obviously impossible but I often admired the floors of books that represented so much knowledge, thoughts and ideas of so many different people.

When my first child was born, books were born for the first time in generations within our family home. Books always surrounded my babies, toddlers, preschoolers and now school children in our home. It thrilled me to see little baby hands holding a board book and faces engrossed in a story. When those little hands turned the page with eyes soaking in the contents and then those scrumptious little hands flipped the page back and forth comparing pages and then onward again until the book was complete but only to be repeated again in picking up a new book, my heart beamed as I knew a love affair was only beginning.

Today, the books that draw my kids into reading frenzies are Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, TinTin, Asterix, Peanuts, Avatar and any book about Sharks. The other day they were telling a friend (that had recently gone to the new Toronto Aquarium) about sharks. I thought they must've watched a program on sharks but they quickly informed me that they knew so much about sharks from all their shark books that they borrowed from the library. #HeartBeam!!!!

We still don't have a very large book budget in our family, so, the library continues to play a significant role in our lives. That's a tradition I joyfully continue from my Dad. In our family visits to New Zealand, Nova Scotia, British Columbia or just within Ontario, we always find ourselves a library and enjoy exploring the books within. Each library has a different feel to it as it invites you in to explore the world and beyond through books. You also get a good feel for the local community that you're in through the architecture of the local library as well as from the books offered, community boards, librarians and patrons. Even though each library is different from each other, there's always a common familiar feeling that is home.

You'll never believe how lucky I am. Not only for the tradition of books but also for a friend who has an amazing book review blog. It's called "The Busy Mom Reads". (Now you're lucky too!) Her name is Meredith. She lives in Waterloo like me. She has three gorgeous little girls. She's well read, honest and is an engaging, down to earth writer - which is amazing for being half asleep as her girls are still young. (I could never have done it!) She reminds me of the passionate Librarians of my childhood who helped open my eyes to new books and adventures. I love her. Reading her blog makes me want to do nothing else but read all day. You've been warned.

I'd like to dedicate this post, on International Family Literacy Day, to all Libraries around the world. Thank you libraries of the world for being accessible to all people, for feeding my family and I with knowledge and passion, for being there for me wherever I go and for being an inspiring extension of our home.

Build an extension to your home and become a member of your local library. They probably have a better book budget than you!

Happy Family Literacy Day!!

daisy