Good inuksuit

In the last post I mentioned going to the AASL in Minneapolis. Sharron McElmeel , Jeni Reeves, Carol Gorman and I spoke on how to foster curiosity in young readers and how librarians can become an important part of the collaborative process with teachers in helping students to become better readers.

Our session had a good audience. We saw some long-time friends, including Toni Buzzeo, shown here with Sharron (Sharron on the left, Toni on the right).Toni was at the AASL speaking on a topic similar to ours--how librarians can become visible and essential collaborators in their schools. We know they are essential, but we are the choir. We-writers and readers--want school boards, parents, community people to realize that excellent schools, even just good schools, require trained librarians.

I also had a chance to spend some time with Phyllis Root, which is always a treat. Phyllis and her daughter Ellen have recently built this inuksuit, a trail marker like the ones built by Alaskan natives to mark the way. Rocks were what they had to build with and what they used.

Every writer needs to run into an inuksuit once in a while. Wandering is good. We find what we didn't even know we were looking for by wandering. But once in a while it's good to see an inuksuit that reminds us that we are on the path, a path.


Seeing friends, spending time talking about shared writing problems, seeing librarians talking about shared purpose-good inuksuit.