Robin McLean

The First in a Series of Book Hunt posts, this one by Margaret, a Librarian in Fairbanks and North Pole Alaska, concerning Imaginary Customers, Inter-generational Rivalry, Red Books, the Almost-Completely True v. the Not-Entirely False, Horses as Compelling Even in the Digital Age, the Vagueness of Youth v. Approximated Recollections, the Power of Lunar Cycles, and the Joy of Finding Lost Objects.

So, as library employees, we often joke about the fictitious patron who comes in and asks for that book that's green and is about trees, or whatever exaggeratedly vague description you like. Well, yesterday it really happened to me up here in North Pole, AK. A tween girl came up to the desk and asked if we had a book that she'd read before that was red. (I was not the most successful in containing my amusement. A smirk emerged, but only the slightest of snorts escaped.) She continued that it was about horses and was something like "Horse Gentler". My co-worker and I both jumped on it, and our initial search in the system struck out, but my co-worker wisely thought to point out the horse spine labels for browsing ease. I continued with another search, narrowing in one area and expanding in another. Bingo, 10 titles all by the same author, probably a series. As I went to show them what I'd found, the girl and my co-worker were discussing whether it was a fiction or non-fiction book, and there conclusion was that it was maybe non-fiction. (Communication is a major obstacle in this job.) I pointed to my find in fiction, and hit the jackpot. The books were in fact a dark red/maroon. We did it, we found that book, you know, that was red. (Must be the crescent moon.)


ARCTIC CIRCLE TWEEN

She can only dream of horses--
find them in books
The Black Stallion
Flicka--
since she has no barn

and since hay ships from
Canada and dad
hates all those Canuck
Socialists --he laughed
when last asked for a pony

RIP
sweet tween
stay warm till 18
then find a highway
stick your
thumb out



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Robin McLean also blogs at Mike's Maze.