In Which Shannon Shares a Story About the Power of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

10/31/2010


"The Wizard of Oz" inspires the International Space Station



So I am dressed up as Dorothy at the Central Library today (which is Halloween). I was sitting at the 3rd floor Teen Desk, and a gentleman approached. He told me that when he was young, he received the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by Frank Baum for Christmas one year. He told me it was the "Harry Potter" of his day. He wasn't a great reader, but he fell completely under the spell of the book. When it was done, he was desperate to know what happened next. He went to his little local library (in a town of 10,000 people) and read the entire series. He became a fluent reader, and reading became a lifelong passion.



This patron went to college, went to graduate school, and ended up traveling the world building the pieces of the International Space Station in Japan, Europe and all over. He told me that he attributes his success directly to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," which inspired his lifelong passion for reading and learning.



Just think, there might not be an International Space Station, or there might be a very different International Space Station, without "The Wizard of Oz." And it makes me wonder what "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" might inspire in the kids and teens who became readers because of those books.



If that's not a story about the power of books and reading, I don't know what is!