Do you love libraries? If you love books as much as I do, then I’m certain you must. There is nothing like a tactile, tangible, touchable book you can hold in your hands.
My library card occupies a proud place in my wallet, and some of my favorite memories from childhood stem from visiting the public library in my small Michigan hometown. It was housed in a beautiful Victorian-style house, much like the one that Anne Gibson turns into a library in the charming Guideposts Books series Secrets of the Blue Hill Library.
The children’s section of our library was on the lower level, and I felt somewhat like Alice going down the rabbit hole when I walked down the steps, opened the small door (just right for a child) and entered the low-ceilinged room with its rows of shelves. It truly was a wonderland where new adventures, friends and places awaited.
I vividly remember the aroma of books—a mix of new and old—that wafted over me there, and, like a bee moving from flower to flower, I picked up book after book as I took in the vast array of titles on those shelves and tried to choose the next ones I would check out and take home. I read about fictional heroes, whose exploits entertained me, and real-life heroes, whose lives inspired me. From the books on our library shelf, the world was opened to me in a profound and captivating way.
Eventually, of course, my reading took me up the steps and into the adult library on the first and second floors, where I continued devouring every book I could get my hands on. I can’t imagine how different my life would have been if it had not been for the variety of reading I discovered at the library. But I can say without a doubt that, without its stalwart and comforting presence in my young life, I would not be the person I am today.
In Secrets of the Blue Hill Library, the children and adults of this small town have been denied these delights because they had no library, until two wonderful women come together to give Blue Hill the library it’s always needed and wanted. Edie Summers bequeaths her Victorian house to her grand-niece Anne, a young widow who had followed her love of books into a career as a librarian in New York. Edie’s generous gift provides both a library for the town and a home for Anne and her two children. But that is only the beginning of the adventures and mysteries that await Anne—and you as my fellow library lover—in this delightful and charming Guideposts series.
