28 JulBig Library, Little Kids

Yesterday three of my kids were with me at the BYU library. I was there to read a book I couldn’t find anywhere else. I had to read it there because, not being a student, I don’t have check-out privileges. I wondered how long my kids would let me read before they overwhelmed me with their “boredom” and made me go. It didn’t happen.

I have taken these kids to the BYU library many times. I usually challenge them to find a book using the tools at hand. Yesterday I asked my twelve-year-old to find my book for me. We looked up the number on the public computer. Jory found the library map and saw that my book would be on the first of the five library floors. Down the stairs we went. On the first floor he checked the map and found where the “D’s” were located—on the other side of the library. It was quite a hike. Once we located the “D’s” he eventually found the 745’s and narrowed it down from there. Eventually he pulled my book from the bottom shelf of a stack in the middle of lots of other stacks. He grinned, proudly. It’s always a wonderful feeling finding one book out of the hundreds of thousands in that library. Glory and Story had to have their turn. We ended up on the fourth floor in the Juvenile section.

I sat down to read my book. I told the kids to enjoy themselves looking for books, but not to wander off and get lost. Finding a lost child in that huge library could be a daunting task. I had 120 pages to read. I hoped to get at least a quarter of it done before their patience wore thin.  In the end I had to nag at them to put their books down so we could leave. They each were reading a different book in the Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi. Amulet is a graphic novel for children.

While we were all reading Story tapped on my shoulder and told me he needed to use the bathroom. I couldn’t just point it out to him because it was a long ways away. He would get lost, so I took him. I stood outside the restroom reading while I waited. When he came out he had a tooth in his hand and a bloody smile. He hadn’t needed to use the restroom; he wanted to pull his tooth. My children have pulled all of their own teeth. I have never helped. The pain and the blood give me the shivers.

After I finished my book and pulled them away from their graphic novel the climbed into a book cart and I wheeled them through the stacks. They thought that was great. We had some other fun before finding our way out of the library.

“Best day ever!” Story says. He’s said that before, but he meant it just as much this time.

“I want to come here again. Soon!” whined Glory.

I love that they love the BYU library like I do. It’s a one-hundred mile round trip to go there. It doesn’t matter; we will go again many times.