Mockingbird Summer - by Lynda Rutledge

 In 1964 Ms. Delacorte public librarian in High Cotton, Texas suggests newly-minted teenager Kate "Corky" Corcoran read To Kill a Mockingbird. Corky shares the book with her brother, Mack who has just completed his first year of college; and with her new friend, America who otherwise cannot use the library in the segregated town.  

Through the lenses of these characters we see how each creates their own meaning of Harper Lee's work. Corky's journey includes learning what the word "rape" means as well as a discovery that although the story took place three decades prior it really wasn't so long ago as the same battles were still being fought in the segregated south.

The Civil Rights bill forms a backdrop to the story and Corky's mother Belle is expecting to benefit herself from the legislation as it also includes rights for women. Belle is looking forward to taking a job at the public library, in defiance of her husband.

96 Miles - by J.L. Esplin

A mysterious power outage leaves brothers John and Stew to survive in the Nevada desert without their father. With the help of neighbors they are able to attend a community meeting at their school library. 

Although I understand the importance of libraries as meeting places, I almost skipped posting about this book, as it was the only time a library appeared in the work. However, later in the novel, when I read that their small school housed grades K-12 and had 47 students total I realized the magnitude of the fact that the school even had a library, and in fact had a librarian. In a time when school librarians are being considered superfluous, and school libraries are closing due to lack of staff, we see a world in which libraries are clearly understood to be the essential spaces that we know them to be.