It is Tuesday morning, and it just happens to be National Read Across America Day. I spend it crowded into an oversized van with more than 2,500 books and about 10 kids who are making some very tough decisions.
Paying homage to Dr. Seuss and his iconic Cat in the Hat, the kids are decked out in hats of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and they are perusing books from the Graves County Public Library’s Bookmobile. The third and fourth graders in Mrs. Jennifer Chandler’s class at Northside Baptist Christian School in Mayfield are each allowed two books to check out. Mrs. Chandler stands in the middle and calls out titles as she browses.
“I have Puppy Place books!” she says.
One girl yells out, “Oh YES!”
As Bookmobile Librarian Sandra Hennessee scans the kids’ choices, one girl in a cowboy hat shows me that she’s checking out a book called Water Horse. One of her classmates, Jet, wears a foam Goofy hat that stands a foot above his brow. He is checking out a book that will teach him how to draw popular Fortnight characters.
Eden wears a khaki brimmed hat that matches her skirt, and she tells me she loves the Bookmobile because “it has so many books.”
Jantson says that it won’t take him too long to read the book he’s checking out about bull-riding.
The 20 third and fourth graders check out a total of 50 books after Mrs. Chandler makes some supplemental choices on their behalf. The kids have just come from their classrooms, where they heard Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan read a story to them and share her own childhood experiences of the Bookmobile.
“I was honored to read to the third and fourth grade students of Northside in celebration of Read Across America Week and to have been able to join them as they visited the new, wonderful Graves County Library Bookmobile,” Mayor O’Nan says as the kids crowd around her and hold up their books for a photo.
You might think the reading excitement contributed to the haul the crew took back to their classroom, but Mrs. Chandler assures me it’s not the case. Last visit, they took away almost as many books as today.
“We love to read,” she says. “We read everything we checked out last time, and these books really help us accomplish our reading goals.”
Northside Principal Jenny Page says that kids in all grade levels at her school look forward to the Bookmobile visits. They often ask when Sandra will be coming back. They talk about the books they hope she brings with her.
“Any opportunity to encourage reading is always beneficial to the student,” she says. “While we have growing school library, the Bookmobile has given us the chance to provide our students even more reading opportunities.”
When the kids disappear back into their school building, Sandra tells me that she relishes when she can visit the young people along her route.
“I always love to see how excited they are to get something that interests them,” she says. “I know that if it interests them, they’ll read it.”
Later in the week, she’ll visit the Little Hearts and Little Hands Daycare, where she will make sure she has enough children’s books for their 12 preschoolers to each choose one that the teacher will read to them that week.
Owner Patsy May says all of her 40 daycare kids look forward to seeing Sandra pull up.
“It’s very important to us,” she says.
“We can’t take the kids to the library, so this brings the library to them.”
“It’s just really fun, and we are really tickled to death that they are able to do this.”
Sandra and the Bookmobile have a route of about 60 stops across Mayfield and Graves County. Over the course of the month, she’ll check out about 1,500 books to residents in nursing homes and apartment complexes, members of the Amish community, and those who are unable to visit the library themselves due to age or illness.
For all those Sandra serves with the Bookmobile, she provides more than just books and media—she provides a connection.
“More so with the elderly, I’ve been known to take out the trash for them or take in their mail,” she says. “If there is something that I can do to help while I am there, I will, even if that’s just to sit if they need to talk for a little bit. I will always sit and visit with them.”
Today as she and I sit and visit, she tells me of her long career being the Bookmobile Librarian. She’s been in the seat since 1995.
“Her patrons love her,” says Deana Gschwind, library director. “She’s been serving the community for a long time.”
Sandra tells me that nothing surprises her anymore about the kinds of books people check out from the Bookmobile and that she never judges. She’s even got a little interview she does with new patrons to help her determine which books to bring for them. She takes me through that.
“Do you like fiction or nonfiction, large print or regular print? Romance, contemporary, or in older times? How spicy do you want your romance?” she says.
“My wheels will already be turning about which books I can pull for them.”
To her stops, she brings with her mystery books written by James Patterson and romance novels from Danielle Steele. She’s sure to stock up on large print Westerns for some gentlemen on her route. And she pulls an extra number of books before she visits the Amish community. That stop is one of her favorites because sometimes she arrives on their baking days and they bring her cookies, breads, and pies. And she always takes time to pet the community’s horse population while she visits.
She spins me a tale of once “killing” a black snake on the carport of one of her elderly patrons so that the lady didn’t come home from choir practice to a fright. I cackle out loud when she tells of beating it with her small broom and even harder when the punchline reveals that the snake was a decoy to frighten birds.
I enjoy very much when she tells me that she reads “in spells” and has recently been reading biographies of grunge singers like Mark Lanegan, Kurt Cobain, and the band Alice in Chains.
She’s right. She is very good to sit and visit with.
It’s fortunate that Sandra is very good at her job, because everyone agrees that it’s a very important one.
During a Library Board of Trustees meeting on June 27, 1961, the group voted unanimously to join the Kentucky State Library Extension’s Regional Library Program service with the caveat that “A Bookmobile will be furnished for the Mayfield-Graves County Library in first class shape and condition.”
Since then, the Graves County Public Library has relied upon the Bookmobile to bring the library experience to those who cannot bring themselves to the library.
“One of our goals is to serve the whole community,” says Deana. “That’s very important to us.”
“Sandra and the Bookmobile are a way to bring the library to the community that otherwise would not have access to our services.”
In 2021, the Graves County Library has unveiled their latest Bookmobile, this one the pride and property of the Library itself instead of a loan from the state extension service.
Mayor O’Nan calls it a blessing for her community.
“These vehicles have been the means of bringing books and knowledge to remote areas for years and certainly aided in the creation of my love for reading,” she says. “As the former president of the Board of Trustees for our library, I know that it is led by a staff with the vision of serving the needs of the people of Graves County, and the new Bookmobile is the flagship of that outreach program. The quality of a local library mirrors the value placed on continued learning by a community, and the people of Graves County are surely blessed by the facility available to them here.”
All the while, National Read Across America Day or not, Sandra and the Graves County Library Bookmobile will be on the road, traveling the county to bring those blessings in the forms of books, movies, connection, comfort, kindness, and excitement to her patrons.
“I’ll even do battle with a snake for you,” Sandra says. “That’s how much I care about everyone on my route.”
INFO BOX:
If you would like to learn more about the Graves County Library and the Bookmobile service, please visit www.gravescountypubliclibrary.org.
If you or someone you know would like to schedule a visit from Sandra and the Bookmobile for you, your business, or your community, please call 270-247-2911 ext. #1.
