The Libraries That Made Me | Margaret K. Troke Branch Library
While the Troke Library isn’t the first library I ever stepped foot in, it was the first library I truly felt was my own. It was a library that I, like Matilda, grew up in. I remember being dropped off in younger elementary school (say third and fourth grade) and I would spend hours on the bright-colored carpet reading Powerpuff Girl and Scooby Doo chapter books; eventually I would be brave enough to venture into the adult and teen sections and discover authors like Sarah Mlyknowski, Meg Cabot, Melissa de la Cruz, and Terry McMillian.
I know many people wouldn’t think of the library as a place to blossom into tweenhood, but to me, the freedom I was offered by a library card—that freedom that allowed me to check out picture books, chapter books, romance novels, manga—whatever I wanted.
It was at this library that I truly learned what it meant to be an uncensored patron with access to the world.