August 2000

Staff -- School Library Journal, 8/1/2000

The Muscle Is the Message
Wrestlers can make good role models for reading

I was reading my July copy of SLJ when I noticed Sue Silander's letter objecting to the American Library Association's poster with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) wrestlers on it. This will be the second summer that we have had a former WWF wrestler speak at our library. This former wrestler is putting his education degree to good use now as a teacher. He commands respect from his students not only because of his teaching skills, but also because of who he was in sports. If you don't like The Rock (Duane Johnson), don't buy his poster, but recognize the importance of role models in encouraging children to read. Oh, and one more thing: it's the World Wrestling Federation, not Foundation.

Correcting the Record

Although Miranda Doyle states that we started the Palo Children's Library in October of 1998 ("Letter from the Philippines," SLJ, May 2000), there has been a library in Palo supported by Palo Alto Neighbors Abroad since 1988. In 1987, a group from the Neighbors Abroad Palo Committee met with me at the Palo Alto California Children's Library to discuss what it would take to start a library in Palo, Leyte, Philippines. We had a wonderful festival highlighting the stories, music, and art of our sister city at the Children's Library in Palo Alto, California, in June 1988. Children brought in donated books and these books made up the first box of books shipped to Palo. The library Miranda refers to in her article is just a new location.