Author Christopher Paul Curtis

Credit: @ your library®

When I was a kid my father would take us to the Flint Public Library every Saturday, we just about lived in the children's section.

Then, in my early forties, when I decided to become a writer, I was naturally drawn to the library to write, and that's where all of my books are written.

I go to the library to write. There's something about the energy there that I love, and just makes me feel very good, very at home.

When I had written my first book, the first person to read it was a librarian that worked at the public library. And I gave it to her and you know, they didn't... I didn't know that I was a writer, they didn't know what I was a writer, and she very kindly read it. A couple of days later she came back in and she walked up to me and she was crying. And she said, "I just loved the book." That really touched me.

Libraries and librarians have always been very special to me. Where else can you go where you get somebody who loves books and who is very knowledgeable about books and you can ask them anything at all about any type of book you can think of, like what a young person would like or an adult would like, and they know just like that. You don't get that in bookstores. I don't care how personal the bookstores is, the librarian knows much more, has more resources at her fingertips.

Well actually I'm working on two books. One is...which is just about done, is called "The Mighty Miss Malone." It's a spin off of "Bud, not Buddy." I'm also working a sequel to "Elijah of Buxton." In this one Elijah is four years older and actually lives through the American Civil War.