Patricia Clapp Makes Me Love America part 2 (But it's only a little bit about Patricia Clapp and mostly about BEAUTY by Robin McKinley)

About 5 years ago, when this blog was just a young whipper-snapper I wrote a piece about how much I love Patricia Clapp. And in it I bemoaned the fact that she didn't have a Wikipedia page.

Well, I just did a search for Robin McKinley because I was trying to find a story I KNOW I have written down somewhere but can't find anywhere about how her book BEAUTY had an impact on my life. Alas, I will write it again. With feeling. 

But before I do, I must revisit my Patricia Clapp post to say that I wrote a Wikipedia page for her right after I wrote the blog post, and with the help of a 9th grader at my school got it put up. 

You're welcome world 

And now, on to BEAUTY.

Back in the summer of 1977 my family moved from a post-war subdivision in the Cleveland suburbs to an upper-middle class town on Long Island. Not super-rich, but fancier than I was used to. Also, I was going from an elementary school where I was about to have my top-of-the-heap sixth grade year and it was going to be amazing. 

I don't know if any of you lived through being a chubby girl with glasses who loves to read and is maybe a little bit too much of a know-it-all for her own good, but I did. At Spruce School, I was popular, it took a lot of work, a lot of pretending to care about the band Boston and stealing my dad's cigarettes, but I had made it. I was in the cool crowd.

At New York Avenue Junior High School I was NO ONE! I was just another new sixth grade baby, but one that NO ONE had gone to elementary school with. I was going in there friendless. My beautiful older sister had it easy. Our whole neighborhood was filled with teenagers and she had a horse. And her acne was clearing up. She was effortlessly cool. 

But this is about me. And Robin McKinley. Back to the story. 

So I made some inroads. I had some funny, smart friends who I occasionally ate lunch with, but the summer before 7th grade one moved away, one went to private school and the other two made kick-line and got super popular, and frankly, kind of mean. (I hope that someday you read this Missy and Diane and that you are REPENT!)

So I started eating lunch in the library. Alone. I didn't really mind being in the library, I loved being able to read, and I didn't mind having to sneak-eat my lunch because of the no food in the library rule that Mr. Costello, the librarian, didn't seem to care too much about. But I didn't like the feeling of having no friends. 

Mr Costello was an old man in a cardigan who sat behind the desk and nodded and said hello as I came in. I didn't pay him much attention, he was a bachelor in his 40s - far too ancient to be interesting.  

Anyhow, there I sat, sad, alone and sneaking raisins out of my purse. And one Friday Mr. Costello came over to me and handed me BEAUTY by Robin McKinley. He said he noticed I was a reader and he asked if I would be interested in reading this new book and letting him know what I thought about it. 

It looked cool (see the large original white cover above) so I said sure, I'd give it a try. 

That weekend I read it and, of course, I adored it. A Beauty who isn't really beautiful meets a Beast who isn't really a beast - what's not to love?

Monday lunchtime I was back in the library. I gave the book back to Mr. Costello and told him that I thought it was great and he said he would put it in the collection since I thought it was worthy. Just like that! My opinion was enough for him to put this book on the shelf of the library for anyone to read. I felt amazing. 

It seems so simple looking back. That book is a no-brainer for a middle school library even today and he was definitely going to put it on the shelf anyway. But he took the time to notice a sad, lonely kid and not just take an interest in her, but give her tangible proof that she mattered. 

So now I am a high school librarian and I see kids sitting alone and I remember how important it was for me to be seen and valued and I try to be like Mr. Costello and notice those kids and while most of them would probably not enjoy me handing them a book and asking them to read it, it costs nothing for me to ask what they are watching on their computer and taking an interest. Just treating them like fellow humans. 

When I decided to go to graduate school to become a school librarian, I thought about why I wanted to do it, and my mind went back to the memory or being handed BEAUTY and all that it meant and that is what I wrote me application essay about. Which I really wish I could find, but alas... It was 17 years ago. And in those 17 years I have been working at the best job ever. So thanks, Mr. Costello for the inspiration.