The Donnell Children's collection is without a home--please write to the below administrators and explain why it needs one....
Will Smith on the Donnell Library sale cdunn@nypl.org
ftschinkel@nypl.org
hlubov@nypl.org
Here's what I wrote:
I’ve just heard about the Donnell library’s forthcoming closing and the homeless prospect of its children’s collection.
I’m a multi award-winning short story editor for over twenty-five years and without a circulating library (mine, as a child, was in the Bronx, then Yonkers, NY) I would not have become the reader I am.
Library books were an essential part of my childhood as I was very rarely able to afford to buy books when I was young. The first book my parents ever took out of the library for me was a nonfiction book about Lapland. All through my childhood I read Eleanor Cameron’s Mushroom planet books, then the Nancy Drew mysteries, books by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and anything I could get my hands on. I was the kind of child who read the backs of cereal boxes. The library instilled this love of reading in me. Without good public libraries where children can read books there will continue to be fewer and fewer adult readers. Please don’t let this happen.
Sincerely,
Ellen Datlow
Editor
www.datlow.com