What I Realized After My Sister, Who Moves Around for Work, Said Something Mean

Hello there. This is Aono.
It was a long time ago, but my sister once said something mean about our local library.

"The library here is old, and the books are tattered, aren't they?"

My sister is part of a family that moves around for work, having lived everywhere from Kyushu in the south to Hokkaido in the north, following her husband. And then, she moves to the town where I live and says something like that. Isn't that awful? Couldn't she have just kept that to herself? I wanted to say, "You didn't build the library yourself, and you didn't donate the collection, so you're just a user, right?" but...

I had been to the Kanazawa Prefectural Library while traveling, and I thought it was amazing. I saw a library that was like heaven for book lovers, and I thought, "I wish we had one like that in my town, too. I want to live in the library." That's how much I loved it.

Then, a few years ago, there was a public announcement that the largest library in my area had been renovated, so I finally went to check it out, but...

Huh? The layout had certainly changed and it was easier to use, but...
The books were old... and dirty... Wait, what?

Only then did I realize that my sister's mean comment was actually true.

It was like the shock a naive girl from the Kingdom of Bhutan, where there was no internet, might feel when she sees a sparkling influencer of her own generation wearing stylish clothes on the internet. I don't know if she would have snapped and said, "I'm not going to pray at the Buddhist altar!" or anything, but... that's the kind of feeling I had.

If I were a billionaire, I would donate a huge pile of new books, but well, I'm just an ordinary citizen.

Then, it was decided that a children's library would be built at the northern schoolhouse.
A famous architect donated the building, the university provided the land, and the local government would handle the operations. Then, a public notice came out asking for book donations from citizens.

Books for children. New or used are both acceptable.

I wanted the local children to read beautiful picture books if possible, so I chose and bought some books by Shinsuke Yoshitake. Selecting books was the most fun part of my time working in the elementary school library. It really gets the brain juices flowing. Picture books are truly adorable and can even heal adults.

I bought these four books, and in addition to those, I will donate my husband's Shinichi Hoshi books.
Yoshitake's books are so cute, so how about them as Christmas presents?

It's just a drop in the bucket, but I hope more children will grow to love picture books.

See you later.