Lauren Tarshis books, donated to library

Appreciation to author Lauren Tarshis, who recently donated several of her books to the library at Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts.

The story behind this donation is that one day in the library, I heard a couple of students saying a title ... something like “I Survived the Northern California Wildfires.”

By way of background, many of our students, staff, and their families were uprooted during the North Bay firestorm of October 2017. Some in our community suffered long-term losses, which they continue to experience.

Around the time I overheard these students, I was reading about coping with trauma in a child-development class. One of the points we addressed was that telling a story is a valuable part of recovering from trauma.

So when I heard the students reference this title, I was intrigued ... was this an actual book and could we get it for the library? I couldn’t find mention of such a book, so I concluded it was a book they would like to see.

I reached out to Lauren Tarshis through a contact-form on her website. I asked if she was writing such a book or planned to in near-future. I told her if she'd give thought to creating such a book, it would find a receptive audience among readers in Santa Rosa, California.

From a representative I heard back that Ms. Tarshis would like to write in future about the California fires and she was sympathetic to what our community went through during the 2017 firestorm.

The books arrived this week; they help fill in gaps that were in our collection of her series. What a wonderfully generous gift!