This story by Tara Sullivan, Children’s Book Evaluator, Long Branch Public Library, is a powerful reminder that you never know when an interaction will be “the one” that grows into a relationship. Thank you to Ingrid Bruck for sharing it with us.
“While evaluating the Central Jersey Library Cooperative children’s books, one in particular struck me as being extremely well done, witty and enjoyable. I actually laughed out loud while reading it. The dedication was interesting to me, I am familiar with this particular author’s work but did not really know much about him personally, so I went to his web site for more information. From his website I linked to his blog and left a favorable comment regarding the book I had evaluated. In the text of the comment I identified myself as a LBPL employee, who loves coming to work in the Children’s Room thanks to authors such as this one.
Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang in Children’s, I answered it and a man asked for me by name. Much to my absolute surprise he identified himself as Barney Saltzberg, the author. We had a lovely chat, he told me my compliment had made his day, I of course told him his phone call had made mine! He took our address and said he will be sending some materials here (he is also an aclaimed musician who has had his music featured on the PBS show “Arthur”). I hope to be in contact with him in the future, we own quite a few of his books here and he has published over 30, hopefully this is the start of a fruitful Author/Long Branch Public Library relationship.
Tara
p.s. He lives in Los Angeles, so this was a bi-coastal interaction! “
