Mary Wong is a very special librarian
who lives in the Phoenix area. Over the
course of her career, she’s been able to impact her community, the state of
Arizona, and many young readers. I had
the chance to interview her recently about her numerous contributions, her art
collection, and her assortment of picture books and novels.
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| An illustration by Adam Rex, drawn on Mary's wall. |
Kathryn
Fitzmaurice: Over the course of your career as a librarian, you’ve been
involved in many activities and committees that have made a remarkable impact
on your community and the state of Arizona.
Please tell us about a few of your favorite experiences.
Mary
Wong: I had the most fun working with elementary age students. During my 9 years as an elementary school
librarian, I received numerous grants to implement projects in my library. Many of these projects won awards and I
received even more money to use for additional special programs and author
visits.
One of my most memorable experiences occurred
when I learned that one of my fifth grade students had a story published in a
children’s magazine. She was a quiet,
shy avid reader. I didn’t know that she
was interested in writing until her mother brought the magazine into the library and showed me.
The student attributed her inspiration
and interest in writing to meeting authors at school. Meeting Bernard Most made a big impression on
her when she was in Kindergarten. By
coincidence, a day or two later, I was asked to make a presentation at a
district school board meeting about my library’s author visit program. The
timing was perfect! I decided to produce
a video and include an interview with the fifth grader who had just published a
story.
Working with middle school (grades 7
and 8) readers was always a challenge.
Leisure reading and using the library took a backseat to their social
life. While it was more challenging to develop programs that would appeal to
them, I was still able to schedule author visits that would hold their
attention and interest. Some of their
favorite author visits were with William Sleator, David Clement-Davies, Patrick
Carman and Michael Buckley.
One of my favorite middle school
experiences involved an 8th grade boy who was a loner and was teased
by his classmates. He took refuge in the
library before school started and during lunch time. When he had difficulty finding the “right
book,” I recommended Gary Paulsen titles.
After reading several of Paulsen’s
books, the student wanted to send a letter to the author. I agreed to send his letter if he provided a
self-addressed stamped envelope in case Paulsen wanted to reply.
A month or so later, the student came
running into the library waving a handwritten letter from Gary Paulsen. The student was beside himself with happiness
and very proud to have received a reply.
He wanted his letter put on the library’s bulletin board for the entire
school to see. I made a copy of the
letter for display and the original letter was sent home for safe keeping.
The student’s self-esteem was elevated
beyond measure by an author who took a few minutes to write a short reply to a
student who needed validation and a friend.
Classmates were impressed. It
was a life changing experience for the student.
One of my favorite community
experiences was with a reading program called “Fathers Bridging the Miles” at a
privately operated men’s correctional facility outside of metropolitan Phoenix
that housed inmates from another state.
I don’t know if this program is still in place.
The goal of the program was to help
the incarcerated fathers learn or improve parenting skills by staying in touch
with their children through reading and recording stories.
I contacted the social worker to see
how I could help support this program and discovered that the correctional
facility was in need of children’s books.
Before any of the 400 books I rounded up could be donated, I had to send
a complete list of the titles to the director of the facility for his
approval. All of the books were
accepted.
Participating fathers had to select an
age appropriate book, practice reading the story or in some cases, learn to
read the story and then make a recording of the story for their children. A copy of the recorded story with a personal
message and a copy of the book were mailed twice a month to the children back home.
I was thrilled to be able to help with
such a worthwhile and important program to keep incarcerated fathers connected
with their children.
One of my favorite state wide
experiences was chairing Governor Janet Napolitano’s First Grade Book and
Fourth Grade Book programs for five years.
During Governor Napolitano’s campaign for her first term of office, she
promised to implement a state wide program to promote literacy with first grade
students.
During her first year in office,
Governor Napolitano selected and provided a paperback copy of a single title
for all first grade students throughout Arizona. The 90,000 copies were funded with privately
donated money. The program was well
received and had a positive effect on bringing awareness to the importance of
early literacy.
Shortly after the state wide
distribution of the first book, I was asked to chair the First Grade Book
program for Governor Napolitano. I was
very excited and nervous about undertaking such an enormous task! All went well during the second year of the
program. Governor Napolitano added the Fourth Grade Book program during the
third year and both programs continued until she left Arizona to join President
Obama’s administration as the Secretary of Homeland Security.
It was a very rewarding experience to
help Governor Napolitano select a book for first grade and for fourth
grade. Each year the Governor traveled
to different parts of Arizona to talk with the students about the importance of
reading before the distribution of the 100,000 books at each grade level. I
was able to accompany the Governor when she launched and distributed her books
to students in the Phoenix area.
Kathryn
Fitzmaurice: Tell us a bit about your career.
Where was your first job as a librarian?
Mary
Wong: My parents were immigrants from China. My younger sisters and I were born shortly
after their arrival in Arizona. Chinese was
my first language so I didn’t learn English until I started Kindergarten. No
one spoke English at home except for my father who worked a late
afternoon/night shift. My first
three years of school were very difficult since my father wasn’t home to
help me with my English or my school work.
I had always wanted to be a
teacher. My sisters and I played
“school” at home when I started first grade.
I was the teacher and repeated the lessons that I had learned at school
to my sisters. I remember trying to
teach my mother how to read with my reading book from school.
School became easier around the middle
of third grade as I became more
proficient in speaking English at school.
I continued to speak Chinese at home and English at school throughout my
childhood. I had to study hard in junior
high and high school but I did well academically. I attended college at the University of
Arizona in Tucson and double majored in elementary education and special
education for my undergraduate degree. I
earned a graduate degree in special education before I started teaching.
I taught special education classes for
11 years in a northeast Phoenix-Scottsdale school district and loved it until
my principal wouldn’t support on a discipline issue in front of the student!
Since I had been interested in working
as a school librarian, I felt it was a good time to make a career change. I had to complete the required course work of
18 units for my school library certification before I could apply for an
upcoming open position. Correspondence
classes from the University of Utah enabled me to complete the course work in 7
months.
After I was hired for the librarian
position, I decided to enroll in a master’s degree library science program from
the University of Arizona. I knew the
MLS degree would give me more options for library positions outside of the
school system if I wanted to change careers again in the future. The
degree also gave me a broader perspective for working with library patrons, developing
library programming, collection development and library management.
My first library job was at another
elementary school in the same school district where I taught special education
classes. I worked there for 9 years and
had a marvelous time developing award winning programs and exhibits to foster
the love of reading and to teach library and research skills.
I had always wanted to start a new
library from the bottom up so when my school district was ready to build a new
middle school, I interviewed and was hired for the librarian position. I worked at the middle school library for 12
years before taking early retirement.
Even though I am retired from working
in schools, I have continued to stay involved with local, state and national literacy
and literature events, programs and projects.
I am still scheduling author visits in schools throughout Arizona.
I have had the most fabulous and
exciting career working as a librarian.
I have met wonderful people with common interests and have met fascinating
authors and illustrators over the years.
I have become personal friends with many authors and illustrators from
around Arizona, different parts of the U.S., Canada and in the U.K. Eight of them have dedicated books to me!
I love to cook and entertain so I’m
always hosting dinner parties with local and out of state authors and
illustrators. My most recent party was a
Newbery celebration for Jack Gantos last March when he was in town for school
visits. So far, 121 authors and
illustrators have been to dinner at my house at least once. I started an autograph wall near my dining
room a couple of years ago. Currently
58 authors and illustrators have signed or drawn on the wall.
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| Mark Teague signs Mary's wall after dinner |
Kathryn
Fitzmaurice: How did you get started collecting children’s literature original
art? What was the very first piece you
acquired?
Mary
Wong: When I started working in a school library, author visits were an
important component of my library programs.
My author visit programs were well received and very successful.
I met Jack Gantos at the Arizona
Library Association Conference in 1992.
Jack wanted to visit schools in the Phoenix area so I volunteered to
help him. I didn’t have any trouble scheduling Jack into schools around
Arizona. He was scheduled at my own school twice. Jack’s presentations were excellent and he was
in big demand. Jack visited Arizona schools two to four weeks per year
for over 15 years.
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| An illustration by Jack Gantos, drawn on Mary's wall |
During Jack’s 1995 visit, he gave me a
framed illustration from his ROTTEN RALPH book (published in 1976) just before
we went for dinner. We were in my
kitchen having a beer when I opened his gift.
I was so shocked, I knocked my beer over onto the piece of art. A few curse words flew out of my mouth as I
held the framed art and tried to keep the beer in the middle of the glass and
away from the edges of the frame.
Meanwhile, Jack was trying to find a towel to wipe the beer off of the
glass. To this day, I thank my lucky
stars that Jack had framed the art before giving it to me and damage was
avoided.
After receiving Jack’s gift, I started
thinking seriously about collecting art from children’s books. I attended two summer institutes at the Mazza
Museum located on the University of Findlay campus in Findlay, Ohio to learn
more about book illustrations and illustrators.
I started contacting illustrators about buying their art and talked with
them in person at national conferences. My
collection has grown substantially since receiving Jack’s gift. I purchased most of my collection directly
from the artists. Several paintings were
acquired through auctions and several paintings were gifts from illustrators.
I became friends with the director of
the Mazza Museum after attending the summer institutes. Mazza Museum supporters were interested in
visiting Arizona illustrators. So in
2008, I set up a week-long tour for 40 “Mazza Enthusiasts” and they
visited the studios of illustrators in
Flagstaff, Tucson and Phoenix. The
“Mazza Enthusiasts” ended their Arizona tour by visiting my house and looking
at my collection of original art before returning to Ohio.
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| The Mazza Museum group visits Mary's home to view her art collection |
Kathryn
Fitzmaurice: I know you also collect first edition children’s picture books,
middle grade and young adult novels. Do
you remember the first one you received?
How did you decide to start this collection?
Mary Wong: I didn’t
know anything about getting books autographed or collecting first edition books
until I attended my first Arizona Library Association Conference in November
1990.
The first author I met at that
conference was Lois Lowry. She signed a
copy of NUMBER THE STARS for me but at the time I didn’t know that my book was
a fourth printing.
A colleague explained the importance
of getting books signed and the desirability of first editions for their
value. So I did some research and subscribed
to the magazine FIRSTS in order to learn more about book
collecting and autographed books.
I have been a serious collector of
autographed first editions for almost 20 years.
It has become an obsession. A few
years ago, I located and purchased a first edition of NUMBER THE STARS and made arrangements for Lois Lowry to sign
it.
Almost all of my autographed first
editions were obtained while attending local and national conferences. I have also mailed books (with prior
permission) with return postage to authors and illustrators for
autographing. In addition to owning over
3000 autographed first edition books, I also have a collection of autographed
book posters and a collection of over 600 photographs of authors and
illustrators that I have met through the years.
Many of my autographed first editions
include books that have won major awards (Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott
King, National Book Award, Jane Addams, Sibert, Pura Belpre, etc.).
Kathryn
Fitzmaurice: I imagine you’ve read a lot of books over the years! Let’s say you’re going on vacation for a week
and that you have to live inside one book for this entire week. Which book would it be and why? (It can be a picture book, a middle grade
novel, or a YA novel.)
Mary
Wong: This is an interesting question.
I have always liked THE LOST GARDEN by Laurence Yep. I read this book four years after I became a
librarian and it really had an impact on me. Laurence Yep was one of the first
contemporary Chinese authors I met in person.
I met him at an American Library Association conference in 1992 and
would see him whenever we attended subsequent conferences. I can’t say that we’re personal friends, but
he always remembers me as the Chinese librarian from Phoenix.
When I read THE LOST GARDEN, I was
drawn to the many similarities that Laurence Yep and I shared in our
childhoods. The most notable similarity
was that we didn’t have a sense of belonging.
We were either “too American” or “too Chinese.” It was astounding to discover that another
Chinese person grew up with similar feelings and frustrations that I had
experienced. I always thought it was
just me and never talked to anyone about it.
I grew up in a small town in northern
Arizona where there were only 6 or 7 other Chinese immigrant families besides
mine. Several of the families were
related to each other and had arrived in Arizona before my parents arrived. The families didn’t have many opportunities
to socialize. The men were busy working
and the women were busy at home with young children.
Throughout most of my childhood, I
didn’t know which world I belonged in. I
didn’t like being Chinese when I was subjected to racial discrimination,
bullying and teasing by my classmates and to some extent by adults. I didn’t like being Chinese when my mother
couldn’t speak English or didn’t know how to cook American food. I wanted to be American and would try very
hard to be more American. I thought if I
was more American, there would be less discrimination and teasing from my
classmates.
My family moved to an upper middle
class neighborhood when I was in first grade.
All my neighbors were Caucasian.
In the beginning I was not allowed into any of the homes of my
playmates. The playmates unwittingly
repeated their parents’ comments about the “Chinamen” couldn’t be trusted. I didn’t know that I was “too Chinese.” Even though I spoke Chinese at home, ate only Chinese food and my outward
appearance was Asian, I still thought of
myself as very American.
I remember thinking that if I didn’t
learn how to use chopsticks at home it would make me less Chinese. If I didn’t speak Chinese with my mother when
we were out in public, people wouldn’t know that I was Chinese. My mother thought I was trying to be “too
American.”
During a third grade health lesson on
the food groups, we had to tell the class what we ate for dinner the night
before. We had to tell what we ate from
each food group. I was seated
alphabetically in my class so all I had to do was listen carefully and when it
was my turn to report, I repeated a meal that sounded good even though I had no
idea about how it tasted. I thought this
would make me more American. Ethnic
foods were never discussed in class and I didn’t know how to categorize Chinese
food into the food groups. Bok choy was
never given as an example for fruits and vegetables.
The emphasis on education was very
strong when I was growing up. My parents
stressed academic excellence as the best way to fight racial prejudice and
discrimination. It was a double-edged
sword because when I excelled, my friends thought I was being “too Chinese.”
I have a small group of Chinese
American friends in Phoenix. Many of them share the common experiences of
having immigrant parents, speaking Chinese in the home and speaking English
outside of the home, striving for academic excellence, working in the family
businesses (restaurants or grocery stores), etc. While their childhood experiences were similar
to mine, I don’t know if they were as conflicted as I was over their sense of
belonging.
To the best of my knowledge, none of
my Chinese American friends ever read THE LOST GARDEN. Most likely they weren’t aware of the book
when it was first published. I
discovered the book because of my position as a librarian.
I’m indebted to Laurence Yep and THE
LOST GARDEN for helping me understand myself better. I only wish I had THE LOST GARDEN or a
similar book to read when I was growing up.
Now and then, I enjoy rereading THE LOST GARDEN , looking back on my
childhood and reminiscing about the
“good old days.”
Kathryn
Fitzmaurice: As a librarian, I’m sure you’ve helped many young readers. What do you typically do when a young reader
comes to you and needs a suggestion on what to read? How do you help them find that perfect book?
Mary
Wong: To begin with, I asked the usual questions about personal
interests, hobbies, favorite pastimes, etc.
I also asked about the last book read and whether or not the reader
liked it and wanted a similar story or if something totally different was
preferred.
If I wasn’t able to help the reader
find the perfect book through my usual questions, then I asked him/her to look
at the nearly 600 photos of authors I met over the years and find an interesting
looking face and then look for a book written by that author. I always ordered all the books by the
authors that I had met in person and photographed.
I kept a list of what the reader’s
peers were reading and suggested those authors and titles. I also had a cart of new books or recent
arrivals on display near the circulation desk.
If all my attempts failed, then I
asked the reader to “trust me” and I selected two or three books for him/her
and suggested reading each first chapter before making the decision on which
book to read.
Thank
you, Mary, for taking the time to let us get to know you, and for telling us
about the many projects and committees you’ve worked on. I feel as if the state of Arizona has been
quite fortunate to have had you there.
