A former BPL children's librarian just released a middle-grade novel that they wish had been around when they were younger. “The Best Liars in Riverview” aims to help kids navigate complex feelings about what gender identity exploration looks like.
When Lin Thompson was a middle schooler, they constantly sought book recommendations from their school librarian. Now their career has come full circle. First, they served as a children’s librarian at Boston Public Library’s Copley branch, where they specialized in middle grade books.
The school got rid of that rule the following year and Thompson’s love of reading came back with a vengeance. “I unlocked this ferocity with reading that I didn’t have before,” they say. “I was always a reader but I was never a fast reader. Suddenly I was reading a book every two days.” This personal anecdote later informed Thompson’s philosophy as a children’s librarian during the rise in popularity of graphic novels.
The first iteration of “The Best Liars in Riverview” came from one of their undergraduate writing classes. “From high school onward, I was fixated with the idea of moving away from everyone you knew, cutting ties, and starting fresh,” Thompson says. “At the time, I had no idea what was prompting it.” The original short story was about two friends who planned to run away on a raft they made together.
“Looking back, my fascination with the idea of running away was very much tied up with complicated feelings about gender and queerness,” Thompson says. “When I was the age of these characters, I didn’t know what I was experiencing, but I can now recognize the questions I was trying to answer.
and their work experience as a camp counselor made them realize they would rather work to put books in the hands of children directly. They pursued their master's in children's literature and library services at Simmons College and became a children’s librarian at the main branch of the Boston Public Library. “Part of what I loved most about being a children’s librarian was the chaos of it,” they say.
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