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Also by Eric Jerome Dickey:

Start 2021 off right with a new book from the Lucky Day Collection on Overdrive.  It’s a great way to access eBooks and eAudiobooks with no wait! Take a look, you might find your new favorite book. 

By: Vianey Becerra, Social Media Manager

Do you speak Spanish? So do we!

This Hispanic Heritage Month, equal access to important resources and information for the Latinx community in Baltimore was a main priority. That’s why we created the new Pratt en Español Facebook group. Here you’ll find information on Pratt programming, services, books and more, completely translated in Spanish. Our weekly live program, Más Allá de los Libros, provides the most recent updates from the Pratt Library and hosts partner organizations to share local community resources. 

Scroll down to view some of our past posts on the Pratt en Español Facebook group.

To join our Pratt en Espanol Facebook group, visit our main Facebook page: @theprattlibrary. 

And don’t forget to set a reminder for Mas Alla de los Libros every Wednesday at noon EST.

¡Hasta luego!

This summer we invited you to tell us a story involving a library in 100 words or fewer. Thank you to everyone who submitted a story! Here are some of our favorites.

Whitney C.:
When I was 15 I dressed up as the Cat in the Hat for Halloween. One of the librarians from our small town saw me and loved the costume. She asked me to do a special storytime dressed in costume reading Dr. Seuss books. I loved how excited the children were, and it made me realize you can do fun things to make a difference in your community.

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Heather D.:
My tiny story involves a tiny library! I discovered the Little Free Library in my neighborhood while out on a walk, and now delight in finding them all over the city!

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Jonina D.:
The first time I entered a summer reading program was after sixth grade. The wonderful Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – founded in 1890 – offered so much more than the suburban Whitehall Library – founded in 1963. I finished first: competitive reader that I am, though only for summer reading programs. Checked in for the big party, yet somehow I didn’t hear the announcement that the celebration was starting, so missed the whole thing. (Turned out okay, library staff consoled me by agreeing to help me start a new junior-high-school book-reviewing group.) What was I doing? Reading!

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Ruby M.K.:
When I was 14, our family moved to Kenshaw Avenue.  My mother would walk to the corner of Kenshaw and Reisterstown Road and say, “This is a great place for a library.” She wrote a letter suggesting Enoch Pratt build a branch there.   They listened! Because I lived in Atlanta for 46 years, one of the first things I did when I moved back was walk into the Reisterstown Road branch and register for a card. Each time that I visit, I feel a special warmth that people are using the library that my mother helped build.

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Inshirah W.:
Hi, my name is Inshirah, and me and my daughter always had these fun visits at the library. That’s where I was able to see her most times. It was hard for me but I knew that’s where we shared our most joy, happiness and all. Anissa took her first steps in the kids’ room of the library. When this Covid is over we plan to revisit the library and have those same memories.

Megan C.:
I walked the mile from my apartment to the Middle River library. Down the alley, through the right-of-way, past the Carberry’s house, past the Church of Christ, past the rec center, then across Compass Rd and into my refuge.

I signed out stacks of books, too many to carry, and I never brought a backpack. My arms ached and my face flushed with heat as I trudged home.

I carried my treasures upstairs to my room, poured myself a glass of sweet ice tea, and spent the rest of the sticky, sweltering afternoon in air-conditioned comfort in bookworld.

Bliss.

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C. J. M.:
The last book in the series is finally out. I must find it. I check New Books. I check the regular shelves. The catalog says it’s here. The catalog is never wrong. Where is it?

“Can I help you?” asks a kind, wise voice behind me.

With the title and author name in hand, the librarian knows just the place. She leads me to the display case near the checkout.

At long last, my turn with this incredible book!

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Teresa H.:
The ladies at the front desk always greet me with a smile one day I was so down I went into the library and I was crying my heart out one of the ladies came over to me and said whatever it is you will be ok and if you need to cry here all day do so I right here if you need me but at the end of your tears I must see you smile. After about another five minutes I went to the lady and we talk and smiled the rest of my visit.

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Taína R.P.:
I doubt I would exist if it weren’t for the library.

My Father grew up in the Williamsburg of pre-gentrified 1955 Brooklyn. A Puerto Rican ten year-old, raised by a single mother with a sixth-grade education, he had zero statistical expectation of escape from those streets. The hood has never been designed for emigration. He should have been a factory worker, or a drug dealer, or a junky. Instead he became a scholar. All because he was gifted an old fat tire bike, and the library he found on his first ride.