No parent should ever have to deal with the loss of a child. Author Jayson Greene never gave it a second thought until the unthinkable happened. His 2 year old daughter Greta was sitting on a bench outside a NYC apartment building along with her grandmother one day, when a loose brick dislodged from an eighth story windowsill. One chunk hit Greta in the head, and the other hit her grandmother on her legs. Greta was kept alive long enough to donate her organs; her grandmother recovered from her injuries. Greene has written an account of how he and his wife were able to pull themselves back from the brink of total despair. They learned how to live in a world without their daughter in it, and his memoir is a heartbreaking story that is a true inspiration to the reader.

This was the subject of an article in Oprah magazine last November, titled “How Gratitude Shifts Your Attitude.” Letters from various people were contained within the article, where the writer addressed the person or object for which he or she was most grateful. One of the letters that caught my eye was “Dear public library,” penned by author Catherine Newman. She explains that she loves the library not only for the beautiful roses growing that she can stop & smell, but especially for enabling her reading addiction and saving her “eleventy trillion dollars in the process.” Newman also pays homage to the kind librarians who work there, explaining “your librarians keep all our secrets, like bartenders we never tip.” Apologizing for her many overdue books, she adds, “your librarians, those gracious hosts, would never be so crass as to mention what I’m costing them” by keeping overdue items. She ends with: ” you are the hero of a story, and it’s this one.” What a wonderful tribute to libraries and librarians…

The North Liberty Community Library in Iowa has a series of podcasts on a variety of subjects for expectant parents, calling them “Stork Storytime Talks.” The idea was developed by 2 children’s librarians from that library, who cover different aspects of early literacy in the podcasts, and have found experts on subjects ranging from newborn screening to surviving summer while pregnant to children speech pathology. Check out the full article from American Libraries.