“When I was a child, my happiest memories are of my family’s frequent trips to the library. My mom adored the library with a cheerful, vehement passion that was contagious; going to the library triggered that same Pavlovian response as “Hey kids, we’re going for ice cream”—it was a treat!”

“The library was where I learned to love mysteries. Nancy Drew, to be more specific. I have a core memory of the line of yellow books in the kids’ section of my local public library. I read every single one that the library had. I read so many that I started to guess the endings. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that the protagonist of my novel becomes a kind of detective herself, though her boyfriend is significantly less upstanding than Nancy’s Ned Nickerson.”

I’m a little teary-eyed as I write this, because libraries have played a huge role in my life. I wouldn’t be the person—or the writer—I am today without them. My debut novel, CROSS THE LINE, wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t been exposed to books of all genres, had a safe space to explore my creativity in, and experienced the kindness of librarians.

“I could talk for hours about libraries—why I need them, what they provide, what threats they face—but what I’ve learned is that a librarian is the perfect main character for a novel because librarians know absolutely everything about their patrons and their town.”

To me, libraries have always been the best sort of magic. They’re everything we should strive to be as a community; welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and filled with stories. I’m hopeful you’ll find that same magic in the final installment of the Lovelight series.

Parents and caregivers are eager for research-based support on raising kids and teens in the digital age. There are a lot of gloom and doom books out there that basically tell us that “smartphones have destroyed a generation.” My book, Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World, offers a different perspective.

“Crow Talk wouldn’t have come be without the encouragement I received from librarians and library patrons over the last two years. I’m so grateful to the libraries and all they do to support writers like me.”

“Library magic is quite real when you’re open to it, which fortunately, I am. To make the magic work, you need to open yourself to possibility and serendipity. Then the library gods take over, guiding your eyeballs to writing that might launch you further into whatever madness brought you to the library in the first place.”

Inside a drawer in my office desk sits a stash of manilla envelopes. Inside each are some of the letters I have collected over a span of nearly twenty years from high school students across the U.S. In these writings, the students share with me, often quite poignantly, what impact reading The Kite Runner has had on their lives.

I can say without a doubt that I would not be where I am today—or writing books—without the library and librarians.

“My life, my entire self, wouldn’t be possible without you. From the time I was very young, my mother took me to libraries.”

“Thank you for making me the reader and writer I am today. I’m the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants, and as a girl, I often felt torn between worlds. But I felt at home at the library…”