A Librarian Changed Brad Meltzer’s Life
The New York Times bestselling author tells us why he loves libraries
“Growing up, my family didn’t have books in our house,” says Meltzer. “A librarian changed my life.” His grandmother helped him get his first library card, and on his first visits to the local library, his world began to open up.
Brad Meltzer is now a successful author with bestsellers galore. In the first three months of this year, he has three (!) new books coming out.
This month, Flatiron Books released The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Kennedy―and Why It Failed (written with Josh Mensch). In February, Rocky Pond Books will publish I am Sally Ride (illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos). And in March, William Morrow will release Make Magic: The Book of Inspiration You Didn’t Know You Needed, a book on Meltzer’s 2024 University of Michigan commencement address.
But once upon a time, he was a kid without a lot of money. He did, however, have one secret weapon: a library card.
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“I remember this librarian who pointed to shelves of beautiful books and told me, ‘This is your section.’ I almost fell over,” he remembers. “I honestly thought she meant that all the books were mine (though, really, they were, weren’t they?). That’s when I met my newest friends, Judy Blume and Agatha Christie.”
These authors and many more became Meltzer’s friends through reading. When he grew up and became an author with a platform, he became a friend to them in return through his passionate support of libraries, books, and ideas.
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Meltzer often speaks out about the importance of free speech without censorship or book banning. “There’s nothing more powerful than an idea,” he says. “And when you ban books, you ban ideas. You stop people from being exposed to things that make the world bigger and more complex. You stop them from seeing things differently. And in that, you impose your limits rather than standing for a broader beautiful experience.”
Books open people up to new experiences and ideas. For Meltzer, his interest in history and history books eventually led him to become a board member of the National Archives. “I’m a history nerd at heart,” he reveals. “That was my major in college. And I’ve written a trilogy of thrillers set in the National Archives.” He even had the opportunity to host the first-ever sleepover in the Rotunda, next to the Declaration of Independence (“Take that, Nicholas Cage!” he jokes).
Meltzer is a longtime fan of archivists and librarians, and in 2016, he spoke at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. In his talk, he told the audience, “There’s no more subversive or awesome group than librarians.”
We still haven’t forgotten that comment and asked him if he would hypothetically rather see that quote about librarians meticulously hand-stitched on a T-shirt or in big letters on a billboard. His reply: “Both! Why choose? I can’t wait until someone makes one and brings it to me on tour. Love you all, subversive awesome people!”
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He loves writing books for both children and adults and claims it’s not too different to write for different age groups. He explains, “The honest truth is, aside from changes in language and metaphors, I treat them the same. A good story is a good story. Whatever your age.”
Book banners, however, find some good stories threatening. They challenged two of his books for young readers: I am Rosa Parks and I am Martin Luther King, Jr. (both illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos).
“When they tried to ban our books, we followed the lessons of Dr. King and Rosa Parks: we fought back,” says Meltzer. “Every book ban in history is motivated by fear and a need for power and control. It’s not surprising to find censorship when people’s grip on power is threatened.”
Meltzer also uses his platform to support other authors of banned books. “When my own books were banned, I encouraged people to buy every book on the banned list,” he shares. “In the end, local activists and librarians reported strangers across the country had purchased and donated over 5,000 books, enough for every student in the district.”
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We asked him what advice he would give to people who are seeing books in their schools and public libraries being censored.
“Fight back,” he says. “From censoring anti-slavery books in the Civil War, racy books in the 80s, rap music in the 90s, or the books about gender identity, sexual orientation and racial injustice that are being targeted today, the ‘concerned citizens’ fighting to make sure their way of life is undisturbed ‘by uncomfortable ideas’ will eventually be revealed as the villains of the story.”
While the particulars of which books get banned shift from era to era, Meltzer points out that there is a constant: “If you’re cheering as books are pulled from the library, you’re on the wrong side of history.”