The Astral Library by Kate Quinn

What could be more fun for someone whose first library card came from the Boston Public Library than a book set at its iconic headquarters in Copley Square? When I heard that Kate Quinn was launching The Astral Library at WGBH-Boston where I sometimes volunteer, I offered to help at the event and persuaded my friend Susan to come as well. It was billed as an engaging conversation with the New York Times bestselling author, Quinn, moderated by fellow bestseller and her friend, G.R. Macallister. I was not familiar with Macallister, who has written a bestselling fantasy series called The Five Queendoms, but she seemed congenial.

Boston Public Library reveals its top 10 checked out books of 2025 list

 The Boston Public Library (which is my library) just announced its end of year statistics and most checked out books (across all platforms) of 2025, which is interesting.  The library lent 7.5 million physical and digital items in 2025, up from 6.6 million in 2024. 

Lois Lowry

I was pleased to be invited to an event at the Boston Public Library (BPL) last week featuring two-time Newbery Award winner Lois Lowry. All we children’s book fans must have RSVPd at once because first I was on the waiting list, then the evening before I received an email saying there was a seat for me. The event was actually to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BPL's Writer-in-Residence Program.

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

Title: The Woman in the Library
Author: Sulari Gentill
Publication: Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, paperback, 2022
Genre: Mystery
Setting: Boston

Description: Writer Hannah Tigone is sitting at a table in the Boston Public Library’s ornate Reading Room when a woman screams.  Soon the police find a dead body.

Boston's Branch Library System

While every library has a charm all its own, a public library, which serves all, regardless of status, education, or wealth, is a resource that can be transformative to the widest range of users.  The Boston Public Library was the first large free municipal library in the United States.  Many visitors know the beautiful and recently renovated central library in Copley Square.  Designed by McKim Mead & White, it stands across the street from its equally famous neighbor, Trinity Church, the masterpiece of Henry Hobson Richardson, whom I have been studying this summer. 

BPL from the East

The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles

Title: The Story of Ruby Bridges
Author: Robert Coles  
Publication: Scholastic Hardcover, 1995
Genre: Picture Book/Nonfiction

Summary: This is a children’s version of the real story about Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old African American who integrated the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. Each day she had to walk by angry, vicious protesters as she was escorted by federal marshals to her classroom. The white parents kept their children home so Ruby was taught alone by our friend Barbara Henry.

Betsy Was a Junior, Group Read, Part 1 - by Maud Hart Lovelace

Chapter 1 - As I take the baton for the Betsy-Tacy listserv's discussion of Betsy Was a Junior, I ask you to imagine it is the end of August rather than early June and that we are all about to return to high school. Part of me is horrified at the very idea, but part of me is convinced I could do it so much better now! What do you think? For those like me who wished high school were more like Deep Valley or Harkness High, would you make a few lists a la Betsy Ray and do a Groundhog Day-like second attempt if that were possible? Or did it live up to your expectations in the first place and you don’t need a do-over?

I think it is fair to say that of all Maud’s books this inspires the strongest emotions due to Betsy’s involvement with sororities and how it affects those around her. One of the reasons we have high standards for Betsy is that we have seen her take stock of herself at the beginning of every school year, make goals, try to live up to them, make mistakes, learn and move forward. As with Beany Malone, sometimes it just seems as if she isn’t getting the message and keeps making the same mistakes. Well, I know I make mistakes so why should I hold Betsy to a higher standard? Plus, I understand one needs human angst to make a good story.

As BWAJ begins, Betsy is spending the summer at Murmuring Lake. She has enjoyed the first two years of high school but longs to be a siren like her older sister Julia. She also has regrets about not having done her best work on the school essay contest. Her freshman year she was too busy socializing to prepare for it, and her sophomore year the contest coincided with her breakup with Phil Brandish. But this year will be different. “I’m going to make my junior year just perfect,” Betsy writes in her journal. “As for boys,” she concludes, “I think I’ll go with Joe Willard!” Oh, Betsy, don’t you know you shouldn’t jinx yourself this way? Only big sister Julia can make these definitive statements and follow through on them - although she is heading off to the U for her freshman year and outside the friendly confines of Deep Valley perhaps even Julia will lose some of her charisma and potency.

For me, BWAJ is one of my favorites, partly because it was the last BT book I read. My childhood library, housed in a lovely yellow building in Newton, MA owned copies of every book except Winona’s Pony Cart and BWAJ, even Emily of Deep Valley and Carney's House Party (I knew more about Vassar than my high school friend who went there). I found Winona in a small library in Chappaqua, NY where my grandmother lived (I also found Cousins by Evan Commager in that library, which I loved and recommend to anyone who can find it). But in the days before online card catalogues, there wasn’t much way to investigate interlibrary loan. One day, several years after I had read the rest of the books, my mother and I went back to the branch of the Boston Public Library where I had got my first library card. Unerringly, I found my way to the L books and there was a beautiful hardcover with dust jacket copy of BWAJ just waiting for me. The children’s librarian, whose name was Judy Lieberman, was delighted for me to find a book that meant so much to me, and in later years teased me that I checked it out so much she should just give it to me. I started reading it in the car driving home, and my mother and sister read it the minute I was done (some things never change - when my sister finished the new Sarah Dessen this weekend, she handed it to me without a word).

So perhaps my long wait for this book is one of the reasons I am so fond of it. Moreover, while we will come to aspects of the book that may cause concern, it is also full of the things we love about Deep Valley: the parties, the dating, the characters we love, the clothes we admire, the teachers we dislike, the assignments we meant to get to, the fudge, but best of all the way the Rays rally around each other in times of crisis.

Leaving aside sororities for the moment, if you could wake up tomorrow as part of the Crowd in the fall of 1908, wouldn’t it be hard to turn your back on that opportunity?  

[From time to time avid Betsy-Tacy fans conduct a group read of the beloved books by Maud Hart Lovelace - let me know if you would like to join us online.]  

The BWAJ images are copyrighted to HarperCollins.

E-Books at the Library

I took a class at the library last week to familiarize myself with borrowing books electronically.  A great librarian showed a group of about 15 how to access via the Overdrive app, and you won't be surprised to see what I checked out first! 

Out of loyalty to the independent bookstores I used to represent (not to mention B&N, where I have so many friends), I did not buy a Kindle, but I did succumb to the lure of an iPad Mini, using my tax refund.

Then and Now, Libraries

My errands today started at the Brighton Branch Library, part of the BPL where I got my very first library card when I was six! The library is one of the first renovated City of Boston buildings that incorporates the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Commercial Interiors guidelines. I had not been inside since the library reopened in 2010 so was curious.  The staff were just as friendly and helpful as Judith Lieberman and Bonnie (whose surname I do not remember) were to me as a child.  I remember it was the first library I

knew to have a YA section - I think you were supposed to be in 8th or 9th grade to use it but I ignored that rule.

It is very shiny and new inside - much nicer than it was in the 70s after the first renovation - not only did it look like a prison but they had to stop using their book return slot because vandals enjoyed dropping in lighted matches! The book I was looking for, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, was purportedly on the shelf but could not be located. Luckily, it turned out my sister owns a copy which I borrowed later. However, the book sale yielded a hardcover copy of Madensky Square (yes, I already own at least one copy but I couldn't leave that behind) and a book by Mary Hooper (recommended both by Monica Edinger and my friend Nicky Smith, who sent me the author's At the Sign of the Sugared Plum, which I enjoyed not long ago). I also bought a hardcover copy of Ballet Shoes for a friend's baby.

I first read Betsy Was a Junior from the Brighton Library as it was one of two Betsy-Tacys the Newton system did not own. We loved the Brighton children's librarian, Judy Lieberman, who got great pleasure in challenging me to read books outside my usual genres. Sometimes it worked (The Endless Steppe)(I did not know there was a BT connection until many years later) and sometimes not (The White Mountains).

The original library had huge amounts of character but it was dark and I mostly remember it was on a steep hill and had narrow steps leading to the front door. Once our car broke down in front of the library - it was too far to walk home so it was fortunate we were in a place we liked to linger until AAA came to rescue us. I was glad to find a photo of the old building hanging in the children's room this morning. I also noticed a new Abbott's Frozen Custard just down the street but resisted temptation as I was on my way to the gym . . .

My childhood branch
stood on a hill

What a nice gesture!

BOSTON - All is forgiven for more than 50,000 children who use the Boston Public Library.
The library will waive all the fines and lost book charges rung up by the children on Saturday. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Boston Public Library President Amy Ryan will summon a magician to make the fees "disappear"

I feel as if I should check my shelves...