Kate and Kathy
Kate and Kathy
Kate and Kathy
"The tribe of storytellers," Lot Therrio explained,
As leader of the day's celebration for
Kate McClelland and Kathy Krasniewicz,
"Believes that as long as a person's name is spoken,
They are never forgotten."
He made believers of us all,
As together we chanted their names
In a chorus repeatedly on Friday afternoon
At the First Congregational Church
Of Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
It was lightly snowing on this eve of the first day of spring.
The cars lined the streets outside for nearly a mile,
Stretching along Sound Beach Avenue from well past the church
To the Perrot Memorial Library,
Where a reception would follow the service, and
Where Kate and Kathy led the children
For a combined half-century.
Within the church, stories unspooled, both sung and told,
From memory and with book in hand.
In perfect three-part harmony,
Erin, MaryLeigh and Hope Krasniewicz
Sang "Four Leaf Clover,"
Their likeness to their beautiful mother unmistakable,
As they shared one of her favorite songs,
A song of hope, faith, love,
And the fourth leaf--luck--
But also bravery and hard work.
Storyteller Tom Lee
Told a tale of how Finn McCoul acquired his wisdom,
But it took Finn's teacher to help him discover it,
Just as Kate and Kathy helped so many tap into theirs.
"All teachers can really teach you," Lee said,
"Is how smart you already are."
Pat Scales, president of the Association for Library Service to Children,
Who'd planned to hand the baton
To Kate McClelland as president-elect,
Said the loss of Kate and Kathy was "almost too much to bear."
At these times, she suggested, we often turn to others' words:
"Wilbur never forgot Charlotte . . .
[N]one of the new spiders
Ever quite took her place in his heart . . . .
It is not often that someone comes along
Who is a true friend and a good writer.
Charlotte was both."
And Jess, returning to Terabithia without Leslie:
"She wasn't there, so he must go for both of them.
It was up to him to pay back to the world
In beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him
In vision and strength."
Mrs. Mac and Mrs. K
Mrs. Mac and Mrs. K
Mrs. Mac and Mrs. K
Perrot Memorial Library's
Young Young Critics (Y2C2) and Young Critics Club
Rose from the transept of the church and walked to the altar.
Each group had selected a passage to read aloud.
Y2C2 read from The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins.
In the passage, young Ludlow Fitch,
Apprentice to pawnbroker Joe Zabbidou,
Realizes that by keeping the townsfolk's secrets in his Black Book,
Joe has acted as a healer.
Joe gives Ludlow a black book of his own:
"Have I chosen well?" Joe asks.
Some of us seated in the pews could not help but think
Of how Mrs. Mac chose Mrs. K. in just such a way,
To keep the book sacred at Perrot Memorial Library.
"I believe I'm able," Ludlow answers.
Next, the Young Critics took turns reading
The final paragraphs of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief,
The story of 10-year-old book thief Liesel Meminger,
Set in a small town in Germany during World War II
And narrated by Death:
"I want to tell the book thief many things,
About beauty and brutality.
But what could I tell her about those things
That she didn't already know?
I wanted to explain that I am constantly
overestimating and underestimating the human race--
that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.
I wanted to ask her how the same thing
Could be so ugly and so glorious,
And its words and stories so damning and brilliant.
None of these things, however, came out of my mouth.
All I was able to do was turn to Liesel Meminger
And tell her the only truth I truly know.
I said it to the book thief and I say it now to you.
I am haunted by humans."
Brenda Bowen gave voice to their loss
For the publishing community.
"They couldn't let a good story go unnoticed," she said.
She riffed on Virginia Woolf's idea of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates
Greeting Kate and Kathy with their books in hand,
And he would say, "Look these two have no need of reward,
For they have loved reading."
Except, said Bowen, "Kate and Kathy would arrive with galleys."
She imagined Kate and Kathy keeping company
with Bill Steig and Lloyd Alexander,
and making peace between
Anne Carroll Moore and Margaret Wise Brown.
"We made better books because of them."
As David Kantor strummed his guitar,
Edward Pleasant, with a deep resonant voice,
Led the congregation in "Simple Gifts,"
One of Kate McClelland's favorite songs . . .
"'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free."
Brian Selznick rose from the transept,
Where he was seated among the Young Critics
Who had voted his Hugo Cabret the best book of 2007.
He read the last passage from Pam Conrad's Our House,
Which asks us to savor each moment and to tell our own stories.
On the same day the Denver Post reported
Kate and Kathy's accident, Brian said,
There was another story:
"Baby Born in Denver Library."
Librarians had helped a mother to deliver her baby.
"Librarians can do anything," Brian said.
We are all that little baby, he suggested, born into a world of stories
That "help us make sense of the terrible, beautiful world we live in."
Peg O'Sullivan led the congregation in a reading of Goodnight Moon
But the final lines belonged to Gerri Hirshey
From her New York Times piece:
"Goodnight, Mrs. Mac.
Goodnight, Mrs. K.
Goodnight from children everywhere."
In a joyful upending of the Pied Piper of Hamelin,
The children rose from the transept
To the strains of David Kantor's guitar,
And led a procession
That wound along Sound Beach Avenue
From the church to their library.
The snow had stopped, and the sun was shining.
Kate and Kathy
Kate and Kathy
Kate and Kathy
--Jennifer M. Brown
Earlier this month, 
