Blinn Sheffield says he has found what he was meant to do as the youth specialist at the Greenwood-Leflore Public Library.
You can find him reading to kids at the library during a weekly storytime program, or working with kids on crafts events such as Dr. Seuss’s Birthday Party coming up on March 4 (he’ll be the one in the Cat in the Hat hat), or sharing the joy of reading with children at Gilliam Head Start, or in pre-K and kindergarten classes at Threadgill, St. Francis, Claudine Brown and Pillow Academy elementary schools.
“They like stories where they get to participate,” Sheffield said of his visits. “I always bring a puppet to perform. Or I bring a flannel story board. They like that.”
At his desk in a second-floor office of the library, Sheffield pulls a cat, a mouse and a rabbit puppet from among the books and craft items that surround his desk. When he presents them with his stories, he introduces children to Katie the Kitten, Mike the Mouse, and Benny the Bunny, anything to attract the attention of small children and channel it to the book and the story.
“It’s extremely important to start reading to children as early as possible,” he said. “There is lots of research that shows reading and language help children’s brains develop.”
And it’s important for the process to begin before kindergarten, he said. Last year, Sheffield started 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, a program that is designed to focus parents’ attention on the need to read to their small child. So far, only 20 people have signed up, but Sheffield hopes to grow that number during 2019.
Sheffield, 46, has been at the Greenwood library for two years this week after 10 years as the children’s librarian in Independence, Kansas. He’s a Memphis native who earned his bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Memphis in 1995.
That led to a number of jobs but no career. “I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do,” Sheffield said. Luckily for him and children in Greenwood, Sheffield remembered liking volunteer work he did with young people. That took him back to school and his master’s degree in library and information science from Louisiana State University in 2005.
He’s bought a house in Greenwood, investing in the community and making a home for his three cats, Katie and Sadie, both short-hairs, and Oakley, a long-haired ragdoll. When he’s not at the library, Sheffield said, he makes mosaics by cutting and mounting colored glass pieces into images of cats. He keeps some for himself and gives others as gifts.
And besides his love of books, Sheffield has a love for travel, seeking adventures in Rome, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Chile and Peru. Some of the travel has come through mission work he has done with churches where he has lived. He’s now a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Greenwood.
As for his first name, he said it’s a family thing with his father and grandfather also named Blinn. Besides that, he doesn’t know where it started.
Sheffield’s programs for children include the summer reading program that encourages kids to pick up a book even when they aren’t required to do so.
“The goal is to get kids something to do during the summer,” he said, “and to get them reading so they don’t lose ground in reading.”
Sheffield himself remembers spending time as a kid reading mysteries, such as the Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown, along with sports biographies.
Sheffield will serve on the Magnolia Awards committee this year for the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi. He’s helping create a list of books for kids from pre-K to second grade. The young readers will then vote on their favorites.
His other duties at the library include ordering books for children and young adults. For this, Sheffield browses websites, reads blogs, book reviews and journals, all with one goal in mind: Get books in kids’ hands.
“My hope is they will read a lot of books and fall in love with reading and language,” he said. “I hope they can develop their intellect and their imagination.”
•Contact Gavin Maliska at 581-7235 or gmaliska@gwcommonwealth.com.
