HPL Children’s Room Stories
Dr. Vanessa Bentley, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Philosophy, at University of Central Oklahoma, [visiting HPL at Christmas, 12/2019]:
“My mother (Carol Gorley) brought us—my twin sister Veronica, my younger brother Phil, and myself—here to the Hubbard Public Library every week beginning when we were two years old. We lived in West Middlesex, PA and came here weekly for the reading programs offered in the Children’s Room. During the summers, we all participated in the library’s Children’s Summer Reading Program. We participated in Story Times and, every week, we took home at least twelve books to read. We all could read before we started kindergarten because we had learned how to read and to love reading at the Hubbard Public Library. We read The Baby-Sitter’s Club series (Ann M. Martin) and The Saddle Club series (Bonnie Bryant). Mom would get the list of the Newbery Medal winning books and have us read them. I remember reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and the other books of the series, Bunnicula (Deborah and James Howe), books by Cynthia Voight, Judy Blume, and Scott O’Dell. When we were in high school and participating in the YSU (Youngstown State University) English Festival, we got the English Festival books from the HPL. And when we graduated from high school, my twin sister and I were class valedictorians.
Today, I’m visiting the HPL with my mother, my sister-in-law Kyli (who is a teacher in the Hermitage, PA school district), my daughter Daria (age 3 ½), and my nieces Stella (5) and Ceci (1). Kyli brings Stella and Ceci to story times here, too. Stella says, ‘We like coming to Story Time; we love books.’ Thus, we are three generations visiting the Hubbard Public Library and its amazing Children’s Room. It’s exciting to see how it’s changed. It’s so beautiful! It was such an important party of my childhood. I’m glad I can share it with my little one.”