We had a writing contest to celebrate NPL turning 100 in 2020
We asked everyone to send us your memories, stories, poems, comics or other creative storytelling methods to help us look at the role the library has played in your past, present, or even what you thought it might look like in the future.
Thank you to the Canadian Federation of University Women Nelson & District for donating the prizes.
Prizes are $50 gift cards from local businesses. Stories may be published on the library website, a commemorative history publication and may be excerpted on our social media.
And the Winners Are…
Winner Best Story Children’s Category
Gwendolyn Pusey: When I go to the Library I’m Free
When I go to the library I’m free. and that’s why I go. I’m there to read and to escape normal life. When I’m in a book I can live through an unrealistic world and life. I’ve always loved to read, and so a library is the place where I can do whatever I want, depending on the book I choose to read. Fiction has always called my attention and made me want to never put down a book, especially books that feel so real, it’s like walking in the characters footsteps and seeing what they see. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m looking at words because I’m so focused on the images racing through my mind that is a story.
And now I’m a writer. I write the stories that I want others to read and love as much as I love to read other peoples stories that were in the library and that I picked up one day to read and to give me inspiration to write.
I still read and always will because that is what I love to do.
Tied for Most Creative Children’s Category
Hugo van Bruggen
As the Library gets locked up for the night all seems dark and peaceful until the Aa Apple and Bb Banana get things shaking from off the Library’s wall! They turn on the bright lights and open a book for their favorite party time maker and party enthusiast to get the party started! Unikitty starts the music and the characters from the library books books have their own Birthday Party for the Library until opening the next morning without any of the Librarians knowing!
Eden van Bruggen
Eden tells a story of a special gift for the Library! A semi-truck shows up and surprises the Library by saying for it’s 100th birthday they are going to move it to the top of Pulpit rock! Rock climbers in the community get to work pulling it with ropes up the mountain! A local hiker makes it to the top and stops by the benches for a snack. Unaware and uncaring to the Danger Sign for the rock climbers below (there actually is a sign up there that says this…) he throws his banana peel down Pulpits cliff! It smacks the first climber in the face and in a domino effect each climber is taken down the hill with the library into the lake! Surprise Library! For your birthday you will now be under water!! A couple weeks later they work at putting it back! Happy 100th Birthday!
Most Creative Adult Category
Jen Callow: Library Takeout
Best Story Adult Category
Jaimie MacGibbon: More Than a Card
I remember the day I received my first library card. I was in elementary school on a field trip with my class. It was the first card I owned and so the first time I had to sign my name. I took the matter very seriously (as one should when one is eight) and considered all the possible ways I could do it. An initial with my full surname? A few big loops dispersed throughout? Or maybe just a vague scribble like adults did? In the end I decided on a simple handwritten version of my name. The pride and responsibility I felt was immense, but I also remember feeling the sense of opportunity that this little card gave me.
So far, my thirty-three years of life have been interwoven with positive memories of the library. No matter which city I’m in, walking into a public library brings the same sense of joy.
As a child, I knew summer had really arrived when my mom would take us to the library to stock up on books. She was a teacher and didn’t have much time to read during the school year, so she used her summers to devour books. We would leave the library with stacks of stories to work our way through. Libraries feel like they signal the start of summer for me. Years later, I still enjoy the ritual of stocking up on summer reads, only now I have my own two
tag-alongs beside me.
When my first baby was seven months old we moved from the Island to the Kootenays. As a new mother in a new town, I felt daunted by the task of making friends. That fall we attended the Mother Goose program at the public library. Amidst all the unknowns of moving, walking into the library brought a sense of familiarity and connected me to my new community.
The library has also connected me to far away communities. My sister lives in northern BC and we don’t have a lot of opportunities to see each other in person. When I use the interlibrary loan service, sometimes the book I’ve ordered comes from her public library. Once or twice in an espionage inspired moment, I’ve tucked a secret note in the pages of the book. When said book is back in its home, my sister will stealthily retrieve the note, impressing even the greatest spies of fiction (or so we like to think).
Our family has since settled in Nelson. One of the first steps we took when we moved was getting our new library cards. It still gives me the same sense of opportunity I felt back on the day when I received my first library card. My two boys will soon be receiving their own and I hope it stands out in their memory like it has mine. Because it’s really not just a card, but a gateway to community, knowledge, adventure, and joy!
Best Story Teen Category
Josie Stienne: Lucy’s Book Club
The library used to be a place where people of all ages could come and be transported to a land of wonders but now the library is deserted. But one little girl named Lucy is still fighting for the library. All over the world people would just play games and watch movies all day, but Lucy loves the library she spends almost every moment reading.
One day Lucy had a plan, she is going to have a book club at the library with pizza and each week the club will read a book and talk about their thoughts it was genius. So at school she put up flyers all over the school everyone was talking about the book club. Then that evening they had the first book club meeting at the library, It was packed there were over 30 kids and adults came that night. The first book they decided to read was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone a classic. Lucy had read the book over 20 times already (She is only 13!) So she knew it by heart so when next week came around she was prepared.
Everyone came as planed many of the people had not read a book before so they had a hard time understanding all of the words so Lucy helped them learn how to read again everything was going great. Lucy was just finishing her 8th book club when she heard a loud crash like a window being shattered, Lucy slowly and quietly crept up the stairs all the books where gone! Somebody must have came in through the window and took them but why Lucy wondered She couldn’t have book club without books then she spotted a letter for her “Meet me at the bridge at dusk’ So Lucy went to the bridge she saw all the books and a person wearing a mask and all black they said you have a choice either have the books and no book club or have nothing, So Lucy said I will have the books. The next day the library had books on its shelf’s again Lucy expected no one would come to the library if there was no book club but when the library opened its doors the place was packed. Everyone wanted to get a book from the library Lucy was so happy that the library was back to normal again.
The End
Most Creative Teen Category
Lincoln van Bruggen:
Tells a story of him going into the library, opening The Collision Comics (Vol. 1) and Ezekiel jumps out from the book, they make a gigantic cake with 100 candles but Ezekiel is naughty and puts gas on the flames. Thankfully, Firemen and a Policeman come out another book and tame the fire and take Ezekiel away. Lincoln and the dump truck driver clean up the burnt cake. Everyone leaves and Lincoln builds another cake even better than before! He safely sings Happy Birthday to the Library, with all 100 candles lit!
