A sign hangs on her door,

BOOKLYN, NEW YORK
WE OPEN UP A MIND
YOU’LL NEVER CLOSE!

When you walk in, the whole library knows—

A welcome bell hums like a tuning fork.

She’ll tell you what to read and what to skip.

You name a book; she heads right to the shelf.

The rumor is she’s read them all herself.

No one has ever run a tighter ship.

These days, a job like hers is electronic

Because computers answer every need.

Librarians belong to a new breed.

But here at Booklyn, isn’t it ironic?

She still treats books like they are dreams come true.

And you had better treat them that way, too.

Cynsational Notes

School Librarian Day is April 4.

“The School Librarian” is offered with permission from children’s author and poet J. Patrick Lewis.

From Candlewick Press: “J. Patrick Lewis has written many books for children, including The Last Resort, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti, which was a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, and Arithme-Tickle: An Even Number of Odd Riddle-Rhymes, illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz. Of Once Upon a Tomb (Candlewick, 2006), he says, ‘The dead can be very funny. Some of their best one-liners are written in stone.'”