Escanaba, MI, The Upper Peninsula-- The Public Library -- August 10, 2007

I had the privilege of talking to Pat, the children’s librarian. Their summer reading program—in a town of only 13,000 they had 350 kids enter and 150 finish!

The kids love reading books by Johnathan Rand (see picture below), who lives in lower Michigan, also Lemony Snicket. The middle schoolers like the Charlie Bone series and a new series bout a girl named Katie Kazoo.

Another local author: Nancy Barr who lives in Marquette now. When she read the first book she couldn’t concentrate on the plot because she got caught up in her descriptions of Escanaba that she could really visualize.

An author named Colleen Coble writes about Escanaba and Copper County (the end of the world, way up north) and brings in some bits about Escanaba. Colleen Coble isn't local, but has visited. The next three of her books take place in Hawaii and then Alaska.

In the mother daughter book club they are reading Without a Trace (author?).

She ha been at the library for twenty-three years. She had to take a month off recently and that convinced her of this: she’s not retiring any time soon. She loves her job.