Yet, we have had a rough couple of years financially. So, I try to utilize the library as much as possible. I have two local ones that I use. One is almost literally right out my back door and the other is about twenty minutes away. The librarians and workers at both places are wonderful. One library even waves any late fees because I'm a homeschool mom.
Yet, I'm so frustrated that I want to cry. These aren't big city libraries. I accept this. I understand that their selection would not be as diverse as one in a major city. However, I'm frustrated with the lack of the selection. It seems that the latest and greatest in Hannah Montana books are always on the 'NEW' shelf. Yet I have trouble finding any of the wonderful living books from the many lists I have.
I don't know how I'm going to afford it at this point, but next year I'm buying all the books I need. (I'm praying for a good tax return or blessings with my husband's job.) I usually enjoy reading the book first. Like renting a video before I buy, I want to know it is something that is going to get a lot of use. However, I just can't deal with not finding what I desire.
Maybe that is one of the problems with our children and young people. We say we want our kids to be reading, but we supply them with light, no-brain fluff. Of course they say that they want to read this stuff. But then they don't fall in love with reading. They don't stick with it because the stories they have read don't stick with them.
Of the few books I have found, I know that they aren't being checked out by children today. I found Hiawatha at my library last year when Laura and I started U.S. History. It hadn't been checked out since 1984. I've found a few books like that. I recently checked out The Bronze Bow for myself. It was on so many of the book lists that I knew it had to be good. It hadn't seen another reader since 1992. Truthfully I am surprised these books haven't been given away at a library sale.
I no longer wonder why the education of our children is so poor. Our children don't read a lot of literature with heart. Programs like Book-It rewards children for reading. Their goal is to get the children reading, and that's admirable. However, the children can read whatever book grabs their fancy. From my experience with checking out books for the last year, the books that could truly touch a child either aren't in the library or they haven't been checked out in fifteen years. The librarians have probably forgot about them with the latest and greatest keeping them busy. I know the draw these books have on children. My nine year old has read her fair share at times. My older ones read a few too. Yet, I know so much more now. Those books are limited.
This past weekend I took my younger daughters books and compiled them on shelves. They weren't organized in my daughters' room very well. I was shocked that they took up only three shelves on my shelving unit. Three shelves? I want lots of books. I want choices for my children. Since they aren't getting those choices in our local libraries, then maybe I should slowly fill those shelves. It's been my fault for not taking more initiative to provide quality choices for my children... homeschooling or not.
I was watching a video presented by the founder of Robinson Curriculum. There was one thing I totally agreed with him on and that was that knowledge comes from books. Some of the greatest stories I read as a child were some of these very books on these lists. As I'm reading these lists, there are some I don't know or have heard about but never read. Other books I read so many times as a child the characters are like my childhood friends. I am excited to read Caddie Woodlawn with my girls. I read that book so often as a child the cover fell apart. I also loved The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read some of the Little House series so much that I named my daughter Laura after the author.
Now there have been a few selections the local library has had on their shelves. Yet, on a list of fifty books, I'm lucky to find three or four books in the two libraries combined. I don't know if I can make much of a difference in the libraries. However, I can make a difference in my home. It may be a slow one as my book budget is pretty tiny at the moment. However, one real book is worth a lot more than a hundred fluff books.
"Wear the old coat, buy the good book." C. S. Lewis
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