For the Love of Libraries

On Tuesday evening, my friend M. told me of this library, one of the largest in the world dedicated to children's literature, that is in an old castle and within zone one on the metro/bus system, just an hour away. We make plans to go, and on Wednesday we set out, each with our small food supply for the trip and what we assumed would be a long stay at the library. We talktalktalk on the way there, but once we reach the spot, we see that it is completely magical and are momentarily struck by silence and awe. It is like a tucked away cove in Munich that everyone remains hushed about; there are bike paths that sprawl out over the whole area
and a gigantic field of sunflowers, straight from the cover of Everything is Illuminated.

The tiny old castle looks more like a church, and has a little moat, plus a lake and a stream nearby. People are out sunning, eating and laughing loudly at the restaurant as their skin freckles and browns. We later got ice cream, after hours of reading, and watched the bikers go by and the sunflowers continuously stretch toward the sun. First, though, we went to the study halls, where there were desk areas, like cubicles without the walls, with plenty of space to spread out books and research. There were so many marvelous books, and I spent forever with one written in 1862 called The Science of Fairy-Tales. It was incredible and had an entire chapter dedicated to story-telling. My mind is full of these stories and theories, on which I took extensive notes. There was a gallery dedicated to Eric Carle, one of my favorite children's book authors and illustrators - the one who did The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar. He is German-American and spent half of his life in each country. For this reason, in addition to his talent, German educators love him. There are even Eric Carle pillows and mugs with the caterpillar's image.

A crazy event was going on outdoors in the same caterpillar theme. Gaggles of children and their parents were making masks, building things, screaming a bit, and playing in a fabric tunnel. One girl had a butterfly painted on her face, but on either side of her mouth rather than on her cheek.
She looked like she could swallow everything.

We went over to the library soon after, where there were so many different sections, each divided by language. I especially loved a book of tales by Jim Henson, or later adapted by him, at least. M. got Where the Wild Things Are in Russian, since she just wanted to use the pictures for ideas in an art project. I had a book on anatomy and started drawing the heart, and another book that I remember reading once I upgraded to chapter books in school. It was called The Borrowers and had to do with tiny people who live under the floorboards and in the walls, like mice. They hang stamps on their walls like paintings, use thimbles as pots and carpet swatches as rugs. I remember being fascinated by it as a child.