Day of Dahl

Today was a day of Dahl. We visited Great Missenden where Roald Dahl lived and wrote his beloved classics, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Witches, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Matilda. It was so interesting to see the exhibits in the Museum and Story Center that showed insights into his inspirations and creative writing process. My favorite part had to be seeing the school children on a field trip running around and experiencing it for the first time. Many of the exhibits are hands on and help to foster their young creative process, but they seemed the most excited about the doors smelling like chocolate.

On our way back to the train station a few of us stopped by the local public library. This was supposedly where Dahl imagined Matilda checking out all of her books to load up in her wagon as an escape from her parents. We even had the pleasure of talking to a young librarian and an older volunteer. We asked questions back and forth comparing American libraries and ones here in England. My favorite question the volunteer asked was if America had lending libraries. Lending libraries are what we know as public libraries where you can check out materials and take them home with you. Surprisingly many parts of the world don't let you lend. It was so nice to stand in a local small town library and realize how similar it is to some of the ones back home. They even had a handful of old ALA posters on the wall! For a few minutes today it felt like I was back in my library. Maybe I should have hopped behind the ref desk for a few minutes...