Teacher Librarian and Life-Long Learner

“It is not down on any map; true places never are.”

― Herman Melville, Moby Dick; or, The Whale

“The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.”

                      __ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act v. Sc. 1.

I love words and books and writers and ideas. I love the magical landscapes that writers create in their literary works. I am always in the middle of a good book. Right now, I am reading The Two Towers from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. My favorite passages describe the magical land of Lothlorien in the land of the Wood Elves of the Misty Mountains. I also enjoy the graphic novel genre, you know, what we used to call comic books. That’s how I learned to read. When I was little, every week without fail, my Mom would buy me a new comic book at the grocery store during our weekly shopping trip.  My favorites were Casper the Friendly Ghost and The Archies with hilarious characters like Jughead and fashionistas like Veronica. I would put together my outfits by copying her comic book clothes. Just Google it, and you’ll see what I mean!

Recently I took a course online called Comic Books and Graphic Novels. I read Watchmen and The Dark Knight and Maus. In a week, I will begin a new online course entitled The Modern and the Postmodern offered by Wesleyan University. Again, I will be reading lots of influential books by deep-thinking writers, people like Sigmund Freud and Charles Darwin who changed our world with words and ideas.

 I enjoy being a librarian, especially when students catch the reading “bug” by discovering that one special book or author who speaks to them and connects with their lives in a unique and individual way. Reading transforms lives, opens windows on new vistas, empowers people to do more and be more. I would like to inform students, too, that there is a direct link between reading achievement in school and earning potential as an adult. In other words, readers will make more money as adults than nonreaders.  Yes, reading equals cash in your pocket…ka-ching! Your future is now! Pick up a book! With this in mind, my motto for the year is “Read Every Day, Lead a Better Life.”  

Now a few facts, dry as old bones…

I am a native of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1983 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with minors in English and Philosophy. I later completed my English degree and also earned a secondary English teaching license from NC Wesleyan in Rocky Mount. I taught high school English for five years. From 2003 until 2005, I studied library science at North Carolina Central University (yes, I am a proud Eagle) and received a Master of Library Science degree in August 2005.  I graduated summa cum laude which means my GPA was a perfect 4.0. Woohoo!  I also studied Interior Design for one year at Randolph Technical College in Asheboro. I lived in Greensboro for fourteen years before moving back home to be closer to my family. I have one son. He brings joy to my life. I love visual art, especially paintings and prints like etchings and lithographs.  In my free time, I enjoy going to the ballet and the opera with my son and his girlfriend.  Hockey is my favorite sport to watch, and my teams are the Hurricanes when they are winning and the Boston Bruins because they are the roughest team in the NHL. I have a white kitty cat with sky blue eyes named Paloma. She is a good furry friend and companion. She likes to terrorize squirrels and dig moles out of their tunnels. You can usually find me in the media center here at school. Drop in and browse the bookshelves, read an e-book, Google the latest news or chat about what YOU recently read. See you@yourlibrary.    

TTYL,

Ms. Thomason