WHEN Geri Ellner began her job this school year as the librarian — or in the current parlance, as a library media specialist — at the Brooklyn Collegiate, a public school for Grades 6 through 12 in Ocean Hill, Brownsville Brooklyn, she did not have much of a book collection.
Many of the shelves in the small library, illuminated by harsh fluorescent lights, were bare, and many books were outdated or not particularly age-appropriate, like a children’s volume titled “Now We Are Six.” For the children’s books, she created a section entitled Memory Lane.
So Ms. Ellner, who has been working in the school library system for 10 years, did what she could to improve the library with a limited book budget of $3,244 for the school year. New York Times.
_Now We Are Six_
Do you suppose the journalist writing the article noticed that _Now We Are Six_ is classic poetry by A.A. Milne (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame?) Not that that’s really appropriate for 6th-12th graders, but it’s hardly deserving of such scorn. I hope Ms. Ellner will consider quoting the title of a different book next time she complains about the horribleness of her collection.