Our beloved colleague, Children’s Assistant Librarian Marleen Rippeth, will be leaving us for warm and sunny South Carolina. Marleen is leaving a big hole at Avon Lake Public Library. She holds that highly unusual combination of superior organizational skills, whacky creativity, and an intrepid heart! And most of all we love her because she’s a great team member.
Marleen can make fun out of any opportunity, a trait our young patrons are going to miss. She’s been one of the madcap geniuses behind our amazing children’s parties here at the Library, creating remarkable crafts and games for the children. Marleen has posed as the Cat in the Hat, a read’n cowpoke, and a waffle chef. Except that last one wasn’t a pose: Marleen taught the children to make waffles one day, bringing a book alive for them.
Marleen is also fearless. Only Marleen would dare combine peanut butter, melted chocolate, and a score of preschoolers! The result was messy, hilarious, and a riot of fun for the children (someone ought to write a children’s book about the Librarian Who Made Buckeyes)! Then there was the summer reading video that featured a fire in the Library. Guess who volunteered to be hosed down by the Avon Lake Fire Department?
Side-by-side with all the fun, is Marleen’s incredible organizational skills. Even among librarians, Marleen is notorious for her tendency to alphabetize things the rest of us would never dream of! And believe me, we’re grateful.
Marleen has been great to work with. She’s one of those special people who shares freely of herself, working for the good of all and sharing the credit for all the wonderful things that have a way of happening around her. We’re going to miss her a lot!
Here’s the poem Marleen wrote to lure author Judy Sierra and illustrator Marc Brown of Wild About Books to our Library in 2004.
Wild About Books
It started the summer of 2004,
When Wild About Books arrived at our door.
With the help of some beavers, a stork, and a gnu,
We watched in amazement as our Zoobrary grew.
It delighted our patrons, they came young and old,
The Avon Lake Zoobrary was a sight to behold.
Then one Thursday morning as the clock struck nine,
A class of first graders marched in, all in a line.
As they listened , we talked about taking good care
Of the books that they own and the books that we share.
They loved Judy’s story, Wild About Books,
And Marc’s illustrations inspired their new looks…
They turned into animals (Well maybe not quite.)
Then they searched to the left and they searched to the right.
They searched high and low, and in all of the nooks,
To find animals reading their own Zoobrary books.
Each child was given a blank book as well,
For we know that they have their own stories to tell.
Three cheers for the Zoobrary, Judy and Marc too,
We’re wild simply wild, about their marvelous zoo!
