Before everything in town disappeared this weekend, a young person came in to the Question Mark Public Library and asked if we had Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp, another favorite of mine from when I was in grade school, and I showed them where it was on the shelf, and the young person asked if they could read it here, at the library, and I said, of course, and they said they liked to read books around other people because it made the book feel “more real.”

It struck me that this is what seems to have disappeared over these last several years, this acknowledgement, that real reality, not the illusory world of the internet and social media, is what so many of us are truly longing for and that books give us an opportunity to engage with the most complicated parts of ourselves—our imagination—while also practicing human connection and empathy.

For my final Librarian's Bookshelf recommendation—little Freddie and I will be departing for Chicago in June—I suggest The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, about a young woman facing the overwhelming circumstances of a world overrun by unreality. I hope to see you all at the library before my final day.