Do you recall your first visits to the library and a favorite book?
Our library in Whittier had a stuffed toy lion in the children’s section for my entire childhood, and a wading fountain outside. I loved Charlotte’s Web, Ramona, and later, Nancy Drew. We’re a big library family—one of our kids works for the library.
Barbara Allen-Young, 62, Retired Nurse
My father was a librarian. We lived in the Sierras, and we’d come down for music lessons and a library visit. The fact that you could take a whole stack of books home was amazing to me. I’m an architect and I’ve worked on designing some libraries.
Jim Allen-Young, 65, Architect
I grew up in Michigan, and we had a beautiful library that was paid for by the Dow Chemical family. I just lived there in the summer—it was air conditioned and had all my favorite books. Our parents dropped us off and I spent many days there.
Mark Larsen, 72, Retired
I went to the Aptos library, and I’d get Harry Potter books. I loved the library as a kid. I just went to renew my library card and they said it was first issued in 2005.
Hannah Leff, 25, Nurse
My parents took me to the Branciforte library every week. It had a huge papier-mâché dragon across the entire library. I loved Where The Wild Things Are. Every time I’d get that same book. In Kindergarten we did plays of it, and made Wild Things masks.
Apollo Kubicki, 18, Biotechnology Major @ Cabrillo College
I remember spending a lot of time in the school library. Schools all had libraries back then. We’d get a big box of SRA Reading Laboratory books. I liked those a lot. In fifth grade a got into the Civil War and I read all the Bruce Catton Civil War books.
Carey Casey, 74, Building Designer
