Letter From a Rancho Youth Services Librarian

Pamie -

Our wishlist had sat dormant for so long that it was sorely in need of attention. Thank you for waking it up! Since your launch of the 2004 pamie.com Book Drive, we have been the fortunate recipients of 32 new books which we have added to our children and young adult collections. I have just put additional items on our wishlist and refined the "Unique Facts" section to better reflect this library's importance to our growing community of young families. Many families who use our library were victims of October's devastating fires mentioned on your website. These families came to the library to find information on rebuilding their lives. They came to find books to read to their children - to calm them when they were upset by what was going on around them, to comfort them with their favorite books that had been lost in the fire. They came to find a quiet place to sit and reflect. We have an amazing community that loves their library. Our story times are well attended, and this year's Summer Reading Program is off to a great start. And now this overwhelming response to your book drive from people all around the country - ain't life grand?

Barbara Sutton
Youth Services Librarian
San Diego County Library
Rancho San Diego Branch
11555 Via Rancho San Diego
El Cajon, CA 92019

Hi Pamie-

The Campo-Morena Branch is getting:

Coaching Girls' Softball: From the How-To's of the Game to Practical Real-World
Advice--Your Definitive Guide to Successfully Coaching Girls by Kathy Strahan

and

My Truck is Stuck! by Kevin Lewis

I'm moving (to Dallas, TX) at the end of the month and will be going through my book collection to look for used donations. I've lived in San Diego since I was 9 and the libraries have been a huge part of my education. From books to concerts, I could always count on our local branch for entertainment. Thanks for picking my city, and thanks for being such an awesomely amazing, superific wonderful woman. :)

Cheers,

Lauren

Hi Pam-

I just sent some books to the Rancho San Diego Branch Library. They should be receiving:

Drawing Cats by Katy Bratun which was ranked a “must have” on the library’s wishlist.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery which is still one of my favorite books of all time, and every girl should get to read it.

Remember the Ladies: 100 Great Amererican Women by Cheryl Harness, because sure, remember the ladies. But the best part? The misspelling of American? That’s how it appears on Amazon. I’m hoping that on the book itself it’s spelled correctly.

Wow, that was fun! I may have to do that again.

Thanks, Pam!

-Kandis

Newest Cool Kid

Pamie-

I stumbled on to your site after reading your novel, which I checked out from my local public library.

I've been enjoying some of your writing, and when I saw that you were using your online community to support libraries, I had to participate. I sent a copy of the "American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide" to the Lemon Grove Library.

While other titles on the list seemed more interesting, as a reference librarian myself I know how valuable reference books like this one are.

What a great project!

-Jennie

Pamie, due to my inability to read directions the books I ordered for Vista's Youth Services Division were sent to my house instead of the library. I'll be at the Post Office bright and early Monday morning to mail them to the correct place. They're getting

Where's Waldo Now? (Waldo Classics)
How Do I Feel?/Como me siento? (Great Beginnings)
Where's Waldo?: The Wonder Book (Where's Waldo? Series)

My kids loved Where's Waldo books and I needed the third book to qualify for free shipping. Thanks for letting us help!

Nysha

Letter From a Vista Branch Librarian

Thanks so much to all of your readers who have donated!! I'm Sylvia Wolfe, a children's librarian at Vista branch of the San Diego County Library. Yesterday we got 4 boxes of books from your readers and today one more!! This is great!

To Bonita-Sunnyside Library:

Excuse Me!
Samurai Girl: The Book of the Shadow
Brother Bear
The Happy Lion


Great job, Pamie

Regards,
JJAAZZZZ

I just donated:

Why Girls Are Weird by some really great Author
Count with Dora!
Dora's Color Adventure
Dora's Easter Basket

to the Rancho San Diego Branch

Now I've done my good deed for the day. Thank you for doing this!

-Donald

I donated two books:

1. The Annotated Hobbit
2. Fire and Wings: Dragons from East and West

Sandra

Hi Pamie. Just wanted to let you know that I sent "The Marvelous Land of Oz," "Of Love and Shadows," and "Heartsongs" to the Lemon Grove Branch Library. Thanks for the great idea; I pretty much lived in the library when I was a kid.

Nicole

Hi Pamie

Just to let you know, Scottish Andy and I just donated The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to the Lemon Grove Branch. I can't believe there is a library in North America where this book isn't available. I have also plugged the drive in my little bit of the on-line community.

Wendy

Sent to the San Diego County Library Valley Center YA branch (Young Adult books may be a greater weakness of mine than children's books. I spent the summer of 2000 reading for some library program, mainly because I had nothing to do and was just young enough at seventeen to be able to participate. That was the year...well, I'll explain in a bit when I get to the books I sent.)

Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle (I saw this on the list and I nearly cried with happiness. Not so much because it's a good book, though it is, but because hopefully someone who needs a story like that will find it.)

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden (Nothing against Lauren Myracle, but Nancy Garden's books are probably the most highly-regarded YA novels about gay teens, as they should be. I actually first found this book by accident. Its cover was on a poster of 'banned books' and I think I managed to do a quadruple-take when I saw it. Maybe I was just an exceptionally dumb kid, but it had never even occurred to me that there would be a novel about someone in my position - that summer I think I drafted about a dozen suicide notes, not really intending to follow through so much as I hoped that someone would read them and approach me, because I was just too damn chicken to sit my parents down and say "look, guys, I'm gay." I wish I could track down every author that I read that summer - and whoever came up with Amazon's "people who shopped for this also
shopped for" suggestions - and thank them for making my life a whole lot easier. Even though what I was reading with fiction, it made things seem, I don't know, more manageable somehow. Anyway, Annie on My Mind was the first one I read, and although not my favorite, it's considered her "classic." And I've finally figured out how common my position [if not my melodrama] was...maybe some kid in San Diego will be helped by these books too. And if nothing else, they're good books worth reading.)

Cut by Patricia McCormick (Another subject far too close to my heart. And a pretty good book. Come to think, I should've sent Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Hesser too. If no one else does, I'll send it with my next shipment.)

Mates, Dates, and Inflatable Bras by Cathy Hopkins (Figured I should send something else on the wish list, and the title made me laugh.)

Wow. Once again it occurs to me that I talk too much.

Hopin' this year's book drive is as successful as the first!

CG

Here's the list:

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature (17th Edition)

Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1) by Christopher Paolini

Basic Training for Horses: English and Western

The Harvard Dictionary of Music by Don Michael Randel

The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: With Main Concordance, Appendix to the Main Concordance, Topical Index to the Bible, Dictionary

Building Your Own Greenhouse

Ortho's All About Greenhouses *

Storey's Guide to Raising Beef Cattle

These were on the wishlist. Otherwise, I would have never even thought of a Bible Concordance!

*When I hear Ortho, I immediately thought Ortho-Novum and I wondered why in the world a birth control company was talking about greenhouses!

Elle

Thanks, Pamie!

Letter From a Campo Branch Librarian

I was so surprised when I got to work this morning and opened my email to find a message from Betty Waznis of our Aquisition Department. She forwarded messages from your customers who had purchased books from our Amazon Wish List. I have to confess that the email had me in tears. As I stood at my computer and read of their generousity and comments, I was filled with such love and hope for our small branch and community. My husband and three children have lived in Campo since 1980, and my grandmother homesteaded here in 1929. My father, who is a young 86, is so excited that the small town where he grew up is finally getting a new library, more than four times its current size. Our local Friends of the Library have worked so hard for many years to see the new library become a reality and we can't wait to move into a larger facility. One of our concerns, with such a small book budget, not to mention cutbacks everywhere, is how we could afford to get the books we needed to increase the collection. Your generous readers bring me such hope and faith that this will happen. Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful program, and please thank your readers for their generous gifts of books and loving thoughts for our little branch.

Respectfully,

Vickie Mulrean
San Diego County Library
Campo-Morena Village Branch Op. Manager

Hi Pamie,

They're not books, but they were on the El Cajon branch's wishlist, so I've sent a couple of CDs - Tony Bennett (A Wonderful World) and the soundtrack to The Fellowship of the Ring.

One of the things I like best about libraries is that they serve people who don't necessary have access to books or music in the same way someone with a car and disposable income does. So why not music?

I picked the El Cajon branch because my best friend who I've known all her life lives down there now.

Thanks for inspiring and encouraging all of us to reach out!

-Anonymous