Librarian’s trip delayed, but not denied

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

Grand Ronde Tribal Librarian Kathy Cole was excited about her upcoming trip to Boston in June. She had been selected by children’s author and illustrator Jeff Kinney to join seven other librarians for a weekend in Boston to celebrate his 18^th book release.

Kinney is well-known for his “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series and his 18^th book, “No Brainer,” discusses the movement to ban books that has swept the country. Working with his publisher, Abrams Books, and his company, Wimpy Kid Inc., he held a nationwide contest to select eight librarians for an all-expenses-paid trip to Boston to meet Kinney, tour his bookstore and studio and generally enjoy themselves. Tribal Family & Community Partnership Coordinator Rebecca Ambrose nominated Cole, who was selected from hundreds of nominees.

But six days before Cole’s flight was due to leave, her 18-month-old granddaughter Carmen fell ill with a case of croup so severe that she was immediately hospitalized at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. All thoughts of Boston vanished from Cole’s head; the only thing that mattered was staying by her granddaughter’s side.

“There was no way I could leave her,” she said. “She was in the hospital for over a week. It was horrible.” Carmen has since made a full recovery.

Cole sent a regretful message to Kinney, thanking him and explaining she would not be coming, and assumed that was the end of the matter.

“I didn’t think they would give me a second chance,” she said. “They certainly didn’t need to.”

Kinney, however, thought otherwise.

“All the librarians and Jeff Kinney made me a video,” Cole said. “In the video, he said he would get me out there.”

With the aid of his assistant, Anna Cesary, Kinney kept that promise and at the end of July, Cole finally flew to Boston with her son Chris.

“I was actually in tears — like, ‘you would do that for me?’ That’s pretty generous,” she said.

“I’m so glad Kathy was able to make it to Boston after all,” Kinney said in an email. “It meant a lot to me that she made the journey, and I was grateful for the opportunity to get to spend one-on-one time with Kathy and her son.”

Cesary said in an email that “Kathy was an absolute delight to correspond with and I’m heartbroken that I didn’t’ get the chance to meet her in person myself. It’s clear that she has a heart of gold.”

The trip was a whirlwind weekend of sheer fun, including a private lunch with Kinney and his wife, and a tour of his studio.

“It was really interesting,” Cole said. “He really spent a lot of time with us and kind of explained everything. … He sat down and showed us how he did his illustrations. They set up a couple of tours for us; the duck boat and a walking tour.”

Cole also made sure to visit a market that friends had told her about and, of course, the Boston Public Library. It was founded in 1848 and had a number of firsts: The first large free municipal library in the United States, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library and the first to have a children’s room, according to its website. 

It was Cole’s first visit to Boston.

“I loved the seafood,” she said. “We threw our stuff in the motel and went and got a lobster roll,” a New England specialty of lobster meat served on a grilled hotdog bun.

 The library, Cole said, “probably wasn’t on a bucket list for my son but he made sure I got there.”

As expected, she loved it and was particularly struck by an open area between the historic and new buildings, where she saw people were sitting out studying and reading.

Cole said she’d love to create such a space at the Tribal Library. “It’s kind of my dream to have a little café and children’s reading area,” she said. “I just keep putting it out there, and maybe eventually someone will run with it. But we’re pretty full here.”

That’s partly because Cole does not purge books, believing they are far too important to discard simply because they are older publications. “It takes one book — but it has to be the right book — to turn somebody into a reader,” she said. “The more books you have, the more chances of finding the reader inside.”

In addition to the trip, Kinney also donated 50 books of Cole’s choosing to the library. She has them proudly displayed on a set of shelves near the door.

“Most of them are books that we don’t have,” she said. “It was somewhat hard to choose, but there are a lot of good ones here that the kids will like.”

She said she was impressed by Kinney’s philanthropic actions, such as traveling to Tasmania to drill a well for a village with poor water access.

“He goes once a year and they do research before about which village needs the most help,” Cole said.

In addition, she said, Kinney is buying up decaying buildings around his bookshop to rebuild.

“A lot of people with money keep to themselves,” Cole said. “He seems like he’s looking to make the world a better place.”