Send email to Celia Lottridge at: celialottridge@yahoo.com
Learn more about
Celia Lottridge at:
CM Magazine Profile:
Celia Lottridge
Authors Among Us - Children's Writers Who Are or Who Have Been Librarians
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Celia Barker
Lottridge
Send email to Celia Lottridge at: celialottridge@yahoo.com Learn more about
Celia Lottridge at: |
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Authors Among Us - Children's Writers Who Are or Who Have Been Librarians
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Featured Titles by Canadian author
Celia Barker Lottridge:
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The Name of the Tree
ISBN 0-689-50490-X |
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Ten Small Tales ISBN 0-88899-156-8 |
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The Wind Wagon ISBN 088899-234-3 |
| What influenced you to become a librarian?
When I was a child I loved to read. We moved often and I found that the library was a place I felt at home even in a strange new town or school. When I finished the university I wanted to work with children in a less structured setting than a classroom and I still loved children's books so becoming a children's librarian seemed to be a natural choice. Do you have a library/information science
degree? Yes From which school? Columbia University. What kinds of library positions have you held and where? Children's librarian trainee, Brooklyn Public Library
How long were you a librarian? About 15 years. Are you currently working as a librarian? No. If not, why did you leave? I started working in the Toronto school system in a year when the board overhired and all new teachers were laid off at the end of the year. No public library positions were open, I didn't want to move and so I had to go in another direction. Which came first in your life, your work or career as a librarian, or writing for children? I was a librarian long before I became a writer. Did your library work have anything to do with becoming a children's writer? I think that both come from my interest in children and stories and, of course, my love of books. The other major element I brought to my writing was my long experience as a storyteller and it was libraries that gave me a place to tell stories. Did your library work directly influence your work as an author? My experience as a child reader and then my experience working with child readers in the United States made me aware, when I came to Canada in the 70s that Canadian children did not have the richness of children's books written in and about their own country that the U.S. did. Other people were realizing this at about the same time but I think that my library experience made me jump in to the rapid development of Canadian children's literature without delay. I knew it was important. Did librarianship increase your knowledge of children's literature and influence the kinds of things you chose to write? It certainly increased my knowledge of children's literature as did the children's literature courses I took at Columbia with Dr. Frances Henney. I don't think that my library work influenced the kinds of books I choose to write except in the ways that storytelling (which I first did in libraries) has been a major influence on my writing. Did incidents from your library work ever make it into your books? Not yet. Did you ever set any scenes in your books in the library? No, except for a classroom library in a one-room school in Ticket to Curlew. What were the greatest benefits of being a librarian to you as a writer? Exposure to a wide range of book, seeing how children respond to books, in some settings being with other people who love children's books, opportunities to tell stories, concern about the quality of books offered to children. Were there any drawbacks to being a librarian and also a writer? I've never done both at the same time but I think that any job unless it is very part time makes it hard to be a writer. Are there any other comments you would like to make about librarianship and writing for children? Although I have not worked in a library since 1977 everything I have done since has still been related to children and books. For thirteen years I worked at the Children's Book Store in Toronto where I learned a tremendous amount about the book trade and about how, as a buyer for the store, to buy books that I and my employer (who was also a former librarian), thought were excellent and would also sell. The dollars and cents reality of selling books has given me a streak of realism that has been very helpful to me as an author. The high standards of the Children's Book Store taught me that good books can sell but they have to look right and feel right to be marketable. I started writing while at the book store. Later I co-founded the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program, a social service program which focuses on teaching parents who are having difficulties of various kinds to use rhymes, songs and stories with their young children. This is oral literature but it is definitely the foundation for reading and for loving language. And in the midst of everything else I continue to be a storyteller. So I have taken library activities, values and concerns into all phases of my working life. And the Dewey Decimal System is engraved on my heart. Celia Barker Lottridge's Books are:
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Last Updated October 30, 2003