Winning Essays!

The top winners have kindly allowed us to share their essays so that everyone appreciate the depth of their understanding of the value of their library cards.

INEZ PENNINGTON
My Library Card

I can’t leave home without it. The only card in my possession that earns rewards I can’t measure or put value on. There are no limits for use, no blackout or expiration dates.

Simply the best tool anyone could ever have to accomplish any goal in life.

I tell people I raised my children in the library. It was a constant ‘haunt’ for the five of us for all our growing years. (I was a teenaged mother, so we grew and learned together.) I think it was one of the greatest opportunities I could have given them.

Today, you’ll still find me there as often as I can go. Visiting the library has never grown old to me. Just to open the door and walk in stirs my wonderment of what I might find inside. There is ALWAYS SOMETHING!

My companion now is my young granddaughter, already loving it as much as all of us gone on before. My greatest hope is that she will carry on the tradition. At age 3, she has her very own card to open the doors of knowledge; what other card gives you that?

ALEXANDER HADDOX
Meadows Elementary School – 5th grade

I love you, library card! To begin with…free movies are awesome to have. I won’t have to buy movies. I don't have much money, so I can use my super delightful library card to get movies from the library instead of renting them.

Next, I am going to speak about my library card. If I have a school assignment I can use it to get the books I need to study. I could learn more history by reading books. The more I read the smarter I get! I am not that smart, so if I read more books my brain gets stronger.

Last I will explain why it’s good to have peace and quiet! I have a loud house so peace is good in the library. See I have three sisters and two half brothers; my house is louder than a ten-foot speaker on full volume, but in a library you can’t hear a sound. I can’t read in peace at my house because it’s so loud. Libraries are a sh-sh-sh place!

HANNAH G. BOELLNER
Age 8

My library card means that I get to check out things on my own card. There is no other place that I can read books for free. I love my library card because I get to compete in these contests. I like my library card because I also like books and books teach me what is in the book and it teaches me sometimes about history and about life. My library card is awesome. I can also borrow movies. I think the people who work there are doing great. There are so many things to do with a library card. When I use my library card I feel like a grownup. I feel privileged when I have my library card. I wonder how many kids there are that have library cards. When I got my first library card I almost screamed. My library card is special to me because it is something the library gave to me. My library card helps me get the books I like.

Thanks to Hanna and all of you who took the time to tell us how much the library means to you. On Monday, November 5 at 6 pm there will be a ceremony at which the winners will be awarded their prizes. There will also be refreshments for winners and their families and friends. Does the Nobel Prize Committee serve pizza at their ceremony? No, they do not. This is one more reason why winning a Cabell County Public Library prize is better than winning a Nobel Prize.