The Lost Mountain

Book One of the Series THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS AND
THE BIG, BAD BROTHER
Copyright October 2008

[Part 2]

            “Oh, I forgot to tell you,” said Abby, “I asked my brother Avery about that.  He’s such a know-it-all, being in sixth grade.  He said there was a little girl just my age who got lost in the mountains years and years ago when the Indians lived here.  No one knows if she was ever found, but it’s possible that the Indians found her and adopted her.  The little girl’s blue-flowered calico bonnet was found in a blackberry thicket, but no other sign of her was ever found.  She must have worn clothes like Laura in Little House on the Prairie.”

            “That’s one of my favorite books!” said Emilee, “and I think the library just got another one about her, Little House in the Big Woods.”

            “Well, I’d better read it fast,” said Abby, “because Avery says if I don’t quit asking so many questions he’s going to take me out and lose me in the woods.”

            Emilee’s eyes danced.  “You know he’s just kidding, Abby.  Avery would fight Grizzly bears for you.”

            “I’m not so sure,” said Abby.  “He spends all his time rocking our baby sister, Anna, and pitching baseball with Daddy.  He’s locked me out of his room and won’t let me touch his Hardy Boys books.”

            “Well, you can say your Nancy Drew books are off limits,” said Megan who was just coming out of the church with a new box of crayons just fitting into her Lady and the Tramp Disney pocketbook. 

            “Hey girls,” said Avery, appearing out of nowhere, “I just saw Charlotte!”

            “Charlotte who?” the girls said in unison.

            “Just look over here,” said Avery, lifting up a branch of the crêpe myrtle near the church steps.

            “Ohhhhhhhh!” said the girls, in unison again.

            “See.  Here she is, and here’s her web.”

            “Oh, just leave us alone, Avery,” said Abby.  “We’ve got work to do!”

            The church bell was ringing, and it was time for “G.A.’s,” a short way of saying “Girls in Action” for missions, or—in the olden days—“Girls’ Auxiliary.”  As a service project, the girls were going to be helping out the church librarian, Mrs. Cloar, each Wednesday night.

(The Three Little Librarians and the Big, Bad Brother is a fictional book based on true events and real characters.)

The Lost Mountain

Book One of the Series THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS AND
THE BIG, BAD BROTHER
Copyright October 2008

[Part 1]

A few years ago, in a little community called Lost Mountain in East Tennessee, there were three little librarians.  Their names were Abby, Emilee, and Megan.  They were nine years old and went to a Southern Baptist Church called New Lebanon.  With a name like New Lebanon, one would expect to see cedar trees all around the church, like the cedars of Lebanon in the Bible, but around the church the only cedars were “scrub cedars” that people cut like weeds to keep them out of the way of the beautiful farm land. 

The farm land had rolling hills, neat fences, many ponds where cows could get a drink or a bath on a hot day, and three mountains that framed the church.  The mountains were called Stone Mountain, Fodder Stack, and Chimney Top.  Stone Mountain looked like the more famous mountain of the same name in Georgia and had a golf course on its fringes.  Fodder Stack was in the shape of stacks of corn stalks, fodder or food for the farm animals in winter.  Chimney Top was really shaped like a regular roof with one little bulge at the top. All three could be seen easily from the church, but no one at church had understood “Chimney Top,” until a beloved former pastor’s wife, Jean Peek, who had grown up in Holy Loch, Scotland, pointed out that chimney tops in the British Isles are often small and hardly more than a little bulge at a distance.

More than anything else, of course, the church was surrounded by grazing black cows, mostly Angus cows from Scotland that are good for beef, though there were also Holsteins from Germany and Charolais from France, which are good for milk.  In fact, the nearest town on the map near Lost Mountain was Baileyton, named for people from Great Britain.  Baileyton had three red lights, four city blocks, three churches inside its city limits, one school, one police department, one fire department, and about 500 people who voted there.  The saying was that there were about 500 people around there and about 5000 cows.

            “Abby,” Emilee said one day as the two girls were sitting on the church steps and drawing pictures of the mountains and cows, “I just keep wondering why this place is called Lost Mountain.  A mountain can’t just get lost,” she giggled.  

(The Three Little Librarians and the Big, Bad Brother is a fictional book based on true events and real characters.)

The New Recruits

Book Two of the Series THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS AND
THE BIG, BAD BROTHER
October 2008

[Part 4]

Fifth, a bookplate was stuck on under the front cover.  The bookplate was a slip of decorated paper with room to write whether that book had been bought by the library budget or had been donated to the church, sometimes in memory or in honor of someone.  Sixth, and one of the most fun parts, was stamping the church name and address on the cover under the bookplate, on the title page close the publisher’s name, on page 25 (or page 5 in small books) in case the cover got torn off through use, and on the manila pocket where there was a space labeled “Stamp Library Ownership.” 

Seventh, and last, a blue American Library Association sticker, showing a reader in the shape of an “L,” was stuck onto the book binding, and under it was placed a white sticker with the Dewey classification number added by Mrs. Cloar.  The Dewey number, organized by subjects like “prayers,” or “miracles,” or “U.S. Constitution,” or “cowboys,” or “cats,” told where to place the book on the shelves, so it could be found easily.

The three little librarians were working steadily with the new recruits when suddenly everyone looked up at the same time.  A “S-C-R-E-E-C-H, S-C-R-E-E-C-H, S-C-R-E-E-C-H” sound was coming toward them from the work area where the men in the church who were good carpenters had been assembling shelving.  Rounding the corner were Ethan and Evan, Emilee’s two younger brothers, riding in a huge yellow mop bucket contraption with large wheels.  With the two of them inside—Ethan, the older, doing most of the pushing—it looked more like a race car than a necessary tool for the church custodian.

“Just thought we’d stop by to see if you needed any help,” said Ethan.

“We might let you glue pockets later,” said Emilee cheerfully, “or you could select the books for the boys’ shelves.”

“Will do,” said Ethan, and sailed across the library with Evan still asking if the librarians had any Dale Earnhardt books.  “If they do,” whispered Ethan wisely, “they’ll be in the sports section.”  The boys managed to collide with Pastor Haun, who was coming downstairs to collect the children in time for supper.  A wheel popped off the yellow mop bucket contraption and rolled under the long cubby-hole table where the girls were working.

           

“What was I saying?” said Abby.  “Brothers!”

(The Three Little Librarians and the Big, Bad Brother is a fictional book based on true events and real characters.)

The New Recruits

Book Two of the Series THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS AND
THE BIG, BAD BROTHER
Copyright October 2008

[Part 3]

            “Where did you find this neat screen saver, Mrs. Cloar?” Avery asked, just as Mrs. Cloar was arriving with a heavy box of new books and announcing happily, “The new Max Lucado books are here!”  Max Lucado had written lots of books for children, and for grown-ups, and it was obvious that Mrs. Cloar would like to have every single one for the library.  She had said her favorite one was Traveling Light, but the three little librarians giggled every time they thought of that.  It was virtually impossible to imagine Mrs. Cloar going anywhere without a big sack of books.  Mrs. Cloar went over to Avery’s desk.

            “The picture for the screen saver was taken by a friend of mine in France named Kristin.  Let me show you her web site.”  Soon Mrs. Cloar had typed in www. french-word-a-day.com

and was saying how wonderful it was to learn French from the site.  The three little librarians looked at each other.  Mrs. Cloar had taught them the song “Jesus Loves Me” in every language she had ever heard, and it looked as if it was only a matter of time before they would be learning more songs and stories in French.

               Finally, the three little librarians were able to get down to work, and they showed the new recruits the procedures for processing books.  First, a new book was given an accession number, and its basic information (author, title, publisher, copyright date, donor, and price) was recorded in the large accession binder which had forms for counting all the books in the library.  The accession number, whether it was the twentieth book, or the two hundredth book, or the two thousandth book, was determined by its number on the accession forms.  Its number was then written on the title page, near the publisher’s name.

Second, a pocket the beige color of a Manila envelope was glued to the inside of the back cover, and a white charging card was placed inside.  Third, the name of the book and its author were written on the charging card and the Manila pocket in the spaces provided, and at the top of each there was room for the accession number and for a Dewey Decimal classification number that would be added later by Mrs. Cloar.  Fourth, a date due slip was stuck onto the book opposite the Manila pocket, so readers could remember when to bring each library book back.


(The Three Little Librarians and the Big, Bad Brother is a fictional book based on true events and real characters.)

The New Recruits

Book Two from the Series THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS AND
THE BIG, BAD BROTHER
Copyright October 2008

[Part 2]

            There was, one would have to say, a definite cat theme all over the library.  Mrs. Cloar had a wooden Siamese cat letter sorter on her desk and a collection of wood stamps with cats in various positions ready to press onto an ink pad and stamp sayings like, “It’s a purr-fect day for reading.”  The library puppets, when not in use for puppet shows, posed by boats with fishing nets, by maps, by restaurant tables, by microscopes—by any book theme being promoted—and there was always a puppet cat on one of their laps.  For the MADELINE books, naturally, the puppets were in doll beds having a slumber party unheard by the beloved Miss Clavel, and a puppet cat rested on top of one of their quilts.

  

There were several books about cats, including the story of MINOU, a cat who got lost in Paris and was adopted to rid Notre Dame Cathedral of mice.  There was a book about a traveling cat, Little Bo in France, written by Julie Andrews Edwards who had starred in the The Sound of Music.  Whenever anyone checked that out, Mrs. Cloar would tell them about Julie and sing a few lines from The Sound of Music.  Recently, Mrs. Cloar had ordered a book called DEWEY, about a real cat who lived in an Iowa library.  Mrs. Cloar and her husband had gone to graduate school in Iowa long ago when they were first married, so any one checking out DEWEY had to hear about the Iowa snow.

  

Then, of course, there was The Christmas Day Kitten, because Mrs. Cloar was trying to collect all the books by the Yorkshire Veterinarian James Herriot.  People checking out the Herriot books usually got to hear a song or poem from Mrs. Cloar’s childhood that went “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.”  Some nights the three little librarians could hardly get their work done for interruptions of song.

(The Three Little Librarians and the Big, Bad Brother is a fictional book based on true events and real characters.)

The New Recruits

Book Two from the Series THE THREE LITTLE LIBRARIANS AND
THE BIG, BAD BROTHER
Copyright October 2008

[Part 1]

            It was late Wednesday afternoon, and the three little librarians—Abby, Emilee, and Megan—were all ready to train three new recruits—Taylor, Makayla (MAH-KAY-LAH), and Haleigh (HAY-LEE).  Their first training session would take place just before the Wednesday Fellowship Meal that preceded Wednesday services and the meetings of the mission groups.  People were busy all over the church getting both lessons and food ready, so the three little librarians were intent on making good use of their time together.

The pastor’s wife, Joan (JO-ANN), was setting out the small children’s handbells, which were color-coded for little musicians. Joan was a classical pianist herself, in spite of having grown up as a missionary kid in a large family in Thailand. Her father was a classical musician and had translated the Bible into the Thai language. Her mother had taught her to read every one of the English classics—what teachers call “Brit Lit”—in order to be aware of her own culture, too. Her mother was also quite a writer, and a collection of her letters home from Thailand had been published. A copy could be found on the library shelves.

Most of the boys at church, called "'R.A.'s" for "Royal Ambassadors," were outside playing croquet, which Mrs. Cloar’s son, Nick, who was in college now, was teaching them; but Avery was already hard at work at the library computer when the girls got downstairs to the library.  Nick had just installed the computer that very week.

            “I’ve been trying to find out more about the Dewey Decimal System,” Avery said, “now that we can do online searches.”

 

            “Just don’t monopolize the computer,” said Abby, yet again aware that only she had an older brother who seemed to be always in her way—even in the library.  Avery could read biographies, and just last week he had been dazzling everyone with his quotes from Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

“Look at this neat screen saver,” said Avery, as he pointed to the picture Mrs. Cloar, the librarian, had chosen for the library computer.  The girls gathered around to see in large detail the picture of a white and orange cat looking into a window from outside.  On the inside of the window, a metal crucifix was attached, and it made the cat look like he was peeking into a devout person’s study—or into a church library.  His silky whiskers touched the glass, and his head looked close enough to pat.

(The Three Little Librarians and the Big, Bad Brother is a fictional book based on true events and real characters.)