A Librarian’s Take on Taktse

by Nancy Bonne

Over twenty years ago, as a children’s librarian at the Beverly, Massachusetts Public Library, I noticed two brothers who came in every day after school to do their homework. When they finished, they'd play computer games, and talk to me. They told me their names were Pintso, age eight, and Aka, age six, and that their father was from Sikkim, in the Himalayas.

Both boys were both very bright - they seldom asked for help with their homework. However, I remember one occasion when Pintso wanted to do a paper on yaks. Books on yaks may be easy to find in Sikkim, but I spent a lot of time trying to get books from other libraries for Pintso’s project.

As they grew up and went to high school and college, Aka and Pintso always kept in touch with me at the library. Then one day Aka dropped by and told me about the Taktse School in Sikkim. I was fascinated to hear that its classes were taught in English, and it was quite progressive. Corporal punishment, common in that part of the world, was never used at Taktse. When Aka said that the school had no picture books, and that Sikkimese parents do not often read to their young children, I told him that the library had about fourteen boxes of surplus picture books. Aka ended up sending them to Taktse one suitcase at a time.


Last year I sent an e-mail to all my contacts announcing my retirement. Twenty minutes later I received an e-mail from Pintso at the Taktse School, congratulating me on my retirement, and asking, "When are you coming to Sikkim?" So I decided to have lunch with Aka and talk it over. When I said, "But I just retired, and I want to spend time with my daughter and grandsons," Aka replied, "Bring them!" Magic words! When I broached the idea of a journey to Sikkim to my daughter Susan and her husband Gary, they were excited, but my grandsons, Evan, 14 and Kyle, 10 were ecstatic!

Aka made the travel arrangements, his mother Maria packed three suitcases of books for the Taktse Library, and we were off. The journey to Sikkim took about 30 hours, including a long and harrowing car trip up narrow mountain roads. We stayed at Chumari House in nearby Gangtok.

We spent our first morning in the shopping district of Gangtok. My grandson, Kyle, has very curly hair, and a woman in a sari ran her fingers through it as she passed him. He caught my eye, and we both laughed. Almost every day someone would ask to have their pictures taken with us. It was a new sensation to be in the minority!

In the afternoon, after a break for milky tea and sandwiches, Pintso gave us a tour of the school. It felt odd seeing the boy I remembered as Pintso in the role of principal of the school, and being addressed as Mr. Lauenstein.

The next day I worked with Dichen, Taktse’s new librarian, showing her what steps to take to up-grade the Taktse library. The first thing I noticed was that none of the books had spine labels, so Dichen and I worked together to print labels and attach them to the books. Then we created a catalog.

A teacher named Sandya arranged my daily schedule. I was assigned to the library, checking books in and out. I also went into the classrooms to give book talks to the older students and read aloud to the younger ones. It was wonderful to be able to interact with the kids.

After reading The Talking Eggs by Robert San Souci and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, I asked the children what they thought the book was about. One said, "Don't be greedy!" and another said, "Do as you're told!" Then one little girl said, "I love the pictures!" So I told them I had actually met Jerry Pinkney, and he had signed one of his books for me. The children wanted to know, “Was it The Talking Eggs?” I said, "No, it was a book that always makes me cry." "Tell us!" they pleaded. So I told the story of Goin' Someplace Special, and as usual, I cried at the end. So did the teachers. I also did a presentation to a group of parents, reading them some bedtime stories, and stressing how important it is for parents to read to their children.

At a faculty meeting, I did a book talk, telling the story up to the most exciting part, and then putting the book aside and picking up another. Their reaction was exactly the same one I've gotten in Beverly for years. "Wait! How does it come out?" I replied, as I always do, "You have to read the book!"

At Taktse I did ordinary library work that I've done for twenty years, but doing it on the other side of the world, with people for whom it was all new, had special meaning for me. It was the trip of a lifetime.

Postscript: Nancy Bonne was featured in an article in the Beverly Citizen newspaper about her efforts to provide picture books to Taktse. She is planning a presentation about her trip to Taktse at the Beverly Library on Thursday, October 1st at 7:00 p.m.