Beverly Public Library

“She was always my librarian.”  This heartfelt sentence was spoken lovingly by a mother who had learned of Nancy Bonne’s passing when she visited the library with her children yesterday.  She grew up in Beverly and Nancy was there for her during her own childhood, and each of her three children had attended Nancy’s story times throughout the years.  There is such an outpouring of love for Nancy as she touched many generations and so many lives with her wisdom and her grace.  She formed deep and meaningful connections wherever she traveled.  Nancy was a remarkable librarian and a dear friend.  It is difficult for me to use the past tense in describing Nancy because her generous spirit and dedicated library work is still keenly felt in the community of Beverly and also at the Taktse International School in India.

I am so thankful I had the opportunity to work with Nancy in the Children’s Room over the course of a dozen years.  When I think of her I can hear her sharing booktalks with me as we prepared for our annual visits to the schools to promote summer reading.  Her booktalks were simply the best.  She always knew just how to present them so that the children couldn’t wait to read the book to find out what would happen next. Before leaving on her recent journey Nancy stopped to get the latest summer reading list to share books from it with the students of the Taktse International School.

Another lovely memory I have of my work with Nancy was conducting the Brown Bag Book Discussion Groups for elementary school children during the summer.  We would often work on the discussion questions together, and I will always treasure the time we spent working with outstanding children’s books and co-leading the discussions.

I know that Nancy would want to share some of her favorite titles, and I remember the following books as some of  her all time favorites; 

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt,

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff,

The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson and

Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo.

Nancy was also a true champion of the cause of promoting early literacy and bringing the very best library service to our youngest patrons.  With her thoughtful guidance we offered Babies and Books Story Times and Mother Goose Time for Toddlers.  While these story times were planned to promote language development and pre-literacy skills, Nancy would always note that above all it was a time for parents and children to bond while sharing books, songs and fingerplays.  Over the years Nancy presented many workshops focusing on sharing books with babies and toddlers to fellow librarians, teachers and daycare providers.  I will always admire the way she shared her knowledge, and how she let her light shine.  As I prepare my summer sessions of Baby and Toddler Story Times I will smile when I think of one of Nancy’s favorite themes for this age group she called, “I Love You.”

Here are the books she would share at this story time;

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown,

Time for Bed by Mem Fox,

I Like It When by Mary Murphy,

What Mommies/Daddies Do Best by Laura Numeroff,

Can’t  You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell and

“More More More,” Said the Baby : 3 Love Stories by Vera Williams.

Tags: book suggestions, children's books, nancy bonne

The Beverly Public Library will host a special exhibit of paintings by Anthony O. Constantino, Beverly writer, poet, sculptor, painter and retired hypnotherapist. Anthony continues to experiment with subject matter ranging from still life to mythologies and with styles ranging from realism to expressionism. He continues to use self-hypnosis as a creativity-inducing technique. The exhibit, located in the Sohier Room on the first floor of the library, will run from August 2 through August 31, 2010.

We are sad to announce that Nancy Bonne, our recently retired children’s librarian, has passed away. She died doing what she loved, having been involved in giving book talks and helping further to organize the school library at the Taktse International School in Sikkim, India the day of her death. She became involved with the Taktse School having “raised” two of the teachers through many story hours and homework assignments as they grew up here in Beverly. This was her second trip to the region; she enjoyed the first trip so much she even gave a slide show and talk on it here at the library and couldn’t wait to go back.
Linda Furey, Assistant Children’s Librarian, has written a beautiful piece about her experiences working with Nancy which can be found here and we encourage anyone who knew Nancy to share their memories of her with us as well either in the comments or in person at the library.

When I learned that retired Children’s Librarian Nancy Bonne had passed away I was shocked and deeply saddened. She was my mentor and friend and I will miss her far more than words can express. In that I am far from alone. Nancy was the sort of person who not only made lots of friends, but consistently went the extra mile for them. Sometimes she went the extra thousand miles. I was not at all surprised to hear that her final days were spent in Sikkim, India at the Taktse International School volunteering in the school’s library and visiting with good friends.

I first met Nancy something close to twenty-four years ago. I was at the time one of a quartet of high-school-aged Pages employed by the Beverly Public Library. My cohorts and I shelved books all over the library and occasionally manned the adult checkout desk. The Children’s Room was, at that time, up on the library’s third floor where the adult Fiction stacks are today. Nancy would have to come downstairs every so often to fetch carts full of children’s books that had been returned or one of us would bring them up and help put them back on the shelves. It was on one of her trips down to get the book-cart that our friendship began.

I was there at the desk on a quiet summer evening checking in books and Nancy was about to take her cart upstairs when she stopped and thrust a picture book at me. “Read that” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. “Read it right now.”

The book in question was Avocado Baby by John Burningham. To this day that book remains one of my very favorite children’s books. I laughed so hard the first time I read that book and I still laugh every time I read it. Nancy fed me a steady diet of very best children’s books in that way. She would turn up, book in hand, and say to me, “Read that.” I’d be willing to bet she did that exact same thing to thousands of children over the years.

Nancy had a truly vast knowledge of children’s books. It was a rare day that anyone could stump her. Ask anyone on the Children’s Room staff and they will tell you the same. A person would come in with a vague memory of a really good book he or she had read as a child. “It was about little sailboats and one might have been named after an animal of some sort,” the person would say. “Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome,” Nancy would declare. And she would be right. I even once heard a woman tell Nancy that there was a book she was looking for that was sort of old and had a red cover. I am still completely mystified as to how Nancy knew from that little description what book it was, but she did.

Nancy made an incredible number of friends of all ages over the years I knew her. She befriended Aka and Pintso Lauenstein and their parents when the boys were just children. It was through them that Nancy became involved with the Taktse International School. She boxed up old and damaged books that had been weeded from the library’s children’s collection (books that would have otherwise been thrown away) and packed them up to ship to India because the children at her friends’ school needed books to read.

I know from dozens of conversations how much she loved that school and how very much she wanted to visit India and see the library she had helped stock and meet the children. Her first trip there with her daughter and grandsons was an experience she absolutely treasured. She couldn’t mention the experience without grinning from ear to ear. I didn’t know that she planned to visit again, but as I said I am not surprised. I am glad that the children of Taktse got the opportunity to meet her. I am glad that so many of Beverly’s children knew her. But I for one am really going to miss hearing her say, “Read this.”

by Linda Furey, Assistant Children’s Librarian

Please feel free to share your memories of Nancy with us in the comments section on our page and in the Children’s Room at the main library.

One of the teachers who worked at the Taktse International School has written a lovely piece on her blog in memory of Nancy Bonne complete with wonderful photos like the one to the left. You can find it here.

Tags: children's books, nancy bonne

review by Emily
This is my favorite read aloud book for kids in grades K-5. I shared it with a lot of classes this June when I was promoting summer reading in the local schools. Emily Gravett’s expressive pencil illustrations manage to capture the terror of the big bad wolf that Rabbit is learning all about in his library book. He learns many facts about wolves, but his nose is so stuck in his book that he doesn’t notice the wolves all around him. Kids of all ages always gasp in terror when the wolves get too close. Luckily, as the book explains, this is a work of fiction and no rabbits were actually harmed in its making. Enjoy!

Tags: book review, books about books, children, children's books, humor, libraries, picture book, rabbits, reviews, wolves