Writers of All Ages Unite -- at the Westmount Public Library

I literally BOUNCED out of bed this morning -- that's because I knew I'd be TEACHING A CLASS today. If you know me, or read this blog, you will know that for 35 years, I taught at Marianopolis College. Even before that, I played school and taught all the kids on my street (and when they refused to come to class, I taught the stuffed animals in our house!!).

Today, in honour of the Westmount Public Library's 125th anniversary, I was invited to do an inter-generational writing workshop about memory -- in particular our earliest memories of going to a library! Cool topic, no? It was Westmount Library's children's librarian Wendy Wayling, and the library's head of programming Daniel Miguez de Luca, who helped me come up with that excellent plan. I say excellent because IT WORKED!

I had about 30 "students" of all ages -- including several students from Westmount Park School and their moms; Hank, a grampa who attended with his three year old granddaughter; and Mi Hye and her five year old daughter Hyunsuh, who recently moved to Canada from South Korea (that's them with me in the second pic).

I talked a little about my latest book Remember This: The Fascinating World of Memory (Orca, 2024) and I shared my theory -- that memories are stories asking to be told! And as usual, I also shared some writing tips. I told the group how when I was in Grade Three, I was determined to write a book -- but that everything I wrote turned out badly. If only, I explained, the grown-up me could have told the nine-year-old me, "Kid, you're on the right track! First drafts are always terrible. You just have to keep rewriting!"

Mikel is a student in GRADE THREE at Westmount Park -- so he's exactly the age I was when I decided I wanted to be an author. (I'll tell you more about Mikel in a minute!)

As I explained before, for our writing exercise, I asked everyone to return in their memories to their first visit to a library. Mikel wrote about his memory of a story his mom Beth told him -- about her "Abuelo Chucho" (Abuelo is the Spanish word for grampa) and how he encouraged her to read when she was a little girl. What I LOVE about Mikel's story is that it has so many layers -- it's a story inside a story, about his great-grandfather, a man Mikel never met, but with whom he feels close.

Mi Hye wrote about the first book she ever read -- Sleeping Beauty: "I loved this book so much I read it countless times." Lily, who grew up in Hong Kong, wrote about a book called Water, a non-fiction book she discovered in the library during her first year of high school. "I still have it on the shelf," Lily told us, "but it's not the same book!" That made us laugh -- and also came as a relief because Lily would have had to pay a hefty late penalty. Hey, something else amazing about Lily -- she told me I taught her son Edmund at Marianopolis, and that he now has a seven year old daughter and a five year old son. Edmund, if you are reading this blog, I still remember you -- and hope to meet your kids at the library!!

Sylvie, who is a poet, described her school library as being like "Ali Baba's cave." Angelina remembered being four years old and running from Greene Avenue all the way to the Westmount Library: "A four year old could run rampant in those days." So interesting!! Hank came up with a great memory that smells to me like a book -- about the bookmobile that visited his school in Scarborough: "Once a week, always at the same time, the bookmobile would park in front of our school." Don't you want to know more?! And Caitlin, who grew up in Stratford, wrote about her memories of the Hamlet Library, where a stuffed owl hung on the wall: "I saw it; it saw me." Another excellent and atmospheric start to a story!

I don't know about my "students," but I was very very sad when our class ended! But hopefully I transmitted a little of my love for stories -- and inspired some budding authors. Thanks to Wendy and Daniel for having me. Thanks to the workshop participants for BEING STRAIGHT A STUDENTS!