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This
story starts just like all good stories start. Once upon a time there was a
girl who loved to read more than anything. Fritzi loved spending her time at
the Glendale Public Library reading everything from HOP ON POP to MAGIC
TREEHOUSE. Every week she would check out all of the books that the
Library would allow her to take home, 25, and then would be back the next
week to get more.
There
was nothing that she liked to do better than to wander up and down the
aisles looking for just the right book to take home to read. After she
finished reading LIBRARY LIL by Steven Kellogg, Fritzi knew that she wanted
to be a librarian just like Lil, who could tell the best stories and lift
bookmobiles with one hand. So when she graduated from high school off Fritzi
went to college and then to Library
School. She worked hard to learn all there was to know about books and how to
chose the best ones, ones to help kids with their homework, ones to show
kids how to do fun stuff and the ones with the best stories.
When
she graduated Fritzi came back to Glendale
and got a job in the Children’s Room as a librarian. The kids who came to
the Library really liked Fritzi because it seemed as if she knew all the
stories in the world and was always ready to tell or read one to them. Her
craft projects were the best and it was even said that her origami birds
could actually fly.
Fritzi
loved her job more than anything and could hardly wait to start work every
morning. She was so anxious for the day to begin that she was often the
first to arrive at the Library. One day though she was doing something that
everyone knows should never be done in a Library, she was running. That
morning a class was coming to visit and Fritzi was busy gathering the books
she want to share with them when she tripped, fell and everything landed on
top of her knocking her out like a light.
When
the library finally opened the other librarians thought that it was strange
that Fritzi wasn’t there, but decided that maybe she was out visiting a
school and weren’t worried about her. But later in the morning a curious
little girl saw the enormous pile of books and library cards with feet
sticking out from underneath right in the middle of one of the aisles in the
Children’s Room. She went up to the Reference Desk and told them about
what she had seen. The librarians started pulling the books off the foot and
discovered that it was attached to none other than Fritzi. When the books
were finally moved off of her, she woke up immediately and seemed to be fine
but for one thing. She was now as flat as Stanley Lampchop, a character in
one of her favorite books. For some people this might have been a tragedy,
but not for Fritzi because she knew that she could still be a good Children’s
Librarian even if she was as flat as a pancake. She still knew all there was
to know about books, storytelling, crafts and having fun. In fact her
flatness gave her a great idea. She knew that kids liked to take pictures of
Stanley
in unusual places and thought that she would go visit the schools, spend
some time with them and their teachers and then have the students take her
picture with them doing some of the things they do at school. In return she
would help them get their very own library cards for the Glendale Public
Library so that they could check-out and read those books that she loved so
much.
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