Gayle Lemmon

Gayle Lemmon: Libraries are a lifeline

"Libraries are such a lifeline."

Oh, I think libraries are such a life line. For me, I started going to the library when I was five. And the worst moment of my library experience always came at the end when my mother made me limit it to 12 books that I could take home that week.

And it was just such agony, because I had like 40 that I'd already come back with. She'd say, "No, we're coming back next Saturday, it's only 12."

So for me, libraries are where I learned to love books. As a kid I learned to... actually, my first editing job was at a library, doing a journal and I was probably 10 or 11. My mother dropped me off and said, "You're going to go edit." I went and I learned to love print at that session.

There's no price you can put on libraries. For kids who grow up without ???? it is a real window on another the world, and for me growing up that's where I learned to see how big the world was in libraries.

And the fact that they exist means that families have access to classics and fun books and things that they would never ever have access to. I think that's just invaluable.


Book Title: 

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana