By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Heather Fallis has superpowers. Dressed in a cardigan rather than a cape, she aids students in their quest for answers and is a defender of books.
Fallis, the library media specialist at Bowling Green Middle School, was recognized Thursday as an inspirational educator by the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club. She began her career as a fifth grade teacher at Conneaut Elementary, then taught one year of sixth grade in the middle school before moving to her “dream job” in the library.
Her library is not a place of stuffy old books where students are shushed.
“It is not quiet. It is never dull,” Fallis said. “No two days are ever the same.”
The middle school library is home to “book tastings,” origami, puzzles, games and comic books.
Fallis admitted to being a “history nerd,” and she confessed to frequently sneaking a book inside her math textbook as a child.
She defies the theory that the days of books are gone, replaced by the internet. But she willingly concedes that the books middle schoolers are interested in have changed.
“The books that are popular now are much more complex,” she said.
“The world is fast,” and students are looking for answers.
She puts students’ reading preferences in two categories – mirrors and windows. The “mirror” books are a reflection of the reader’s life, while the “window” books allow readers to peek into lives different than their own.
Young teens are hungry for books examining the lives of people who are gay, people with mental health problems, those abusing drugs – plus throw in a few historical fiction novels and a love story.
Fallis listed off the most recent requests she had from students in search of a good read. They sent her on a quest for books about someone who died, about a little romance, and about a murdering toy robot.
And Fallis – who said school librarian Tami Lynch was her incomparable mentor – is happy to oblige. School libraries, she said, are places where students should be safe.
“That’s more important than any book I hand out,” she said. “I like to be the one to give kids a mirror and a window to escape.”
As the library media specialist, Fallis gets to spend three years with the same students, establishing relationships.
“Middle school is a hard place,” she said. “A little bit of kindness goes a very, very long way.”
Her library has 9,656 books in circulation, with 769 checked out as of Thursday. There were 64 new books purchased for the year – added to the bagful of books she just purchased recently at Grounds for Thought.
In addition to helping students find books for enjoyment, she also points them in the right direction for research.
“Their version of research is a little bit different than what we did,” Fallis explained to the Kiwanis members. They are accustomed to learning through videos and online research. They avoid the “ancient areas of the library,” where the heavy encyclopedias are shelved.
So Fallis puts them on the path of reliable sources of research. She does not view the internet as a threat to books – but partners in research.
“This is just the language they speak,” she said of young teens.
Recently, she helped with the pursuit of information on refugee crises, and for a West Africa exhibit.
“It’s always different. It’s never just books,” she said.
Because of her love for books, Fallis said she finds it “mind boggling” that some new schools are being built without libraries.
Ohio is one of the states that does not require schools to have libraries. But Bowling Green City Schools has made a clear commitment to books, she said.
“Our city is pretty strong on reading,” she said.
