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>> she's a graduate of yale law school and she's managing partner of gotleib and yang and education for civil rights and writing major publications for the new york times and washington post. she lives in brooklyn with her husband and their two rescue

dogs, salty and peppers. give a warm sackmary sackmary van that -- savannah welcome to chan wong. >> the library investigation officer named lieutenant bookman visits jerry's apartment. the visit occurs because according to library records, jerry had had henry millers topic of cancer checked out since 1971. but according to jerry, he returned it that same year. when you learn that, mark cramer is terrified. do you know how much that comes to? that's a nickel a day for 20 thyears. it could be $50,000. but when jerry corrects him.

it doesn't work like that. cramer gives voice to a fear that would have sent chill. through my body as a child. if it's a dime a day, it's $100,000. >> is this guy making a big stink about old library books. let me give you a hint, junior.s maybe we can live without libraries, people like you and me, maybe. sure, we're too old to change the world.

but what about that kid sitting down opening a book right now in a branch of the local library and finding drawings of pps and wee wees on the cat and the' hat and the five chinese brothers?. doesn't he deserve better? if you think this is about overdue fines and missing books. you better think again. okay, at this point, i know who you're thinking. what is she doing? why is she starting with this? when will she stop? well, i'm afraid to tell you, i will never stop quoting seinfeld. as a jewish new yorker that grow up in the '90s, i'm actually

legally requiredfu to open every speech with a reference to seinfeld. i don't make the rules. but the reality is it's beautiful, special things like this when so many of us get to get together and celebrate the written word that the truth of bookman's monologue comes to me. he might have been comically overzealous about his sob and live up to his aim -- job and live up to his name and also got something very right. books are so much more than words on paper. for a lonely child, they may ugel be her home, her refuge ana pipeline to a brighter future. i know this because i was that child. when i moved to america from china in 1994, everything i had ever known disappeared overnight.

for the first time in my life i found myself a racial new york minority in a land -- minority in a land where i didn't speak the language on a continent where i knew no one but my parents. my panters, professors -- parents, professors in china, thrown into 14 hours of physical labor at the sweat shop where we made pennys per article off clothing. at the sushi plant where my mom's hands turned purple for being submerged in ice water nonstop. learning that i was "illegal". i walked the other way whenever i saw anyone in uniform, cop or custodian. the first english word i learned was a slur for chinese. a word that etched into my brain issue the certain knowledge that my racepu was repugnant. a memory of first days in america comes to me in a familiar fear, loneliness and hunger.

i remember the confusion that enveloped me as i wondered how the chinese could call this land [ speaking foreign language ]. literally translated beautiful country. but albert einstein once said, the only thing you absolutelyhi voter to know is the location of the library. we call that man a geniusal fora reason. when i found the branch obloquy way from my elementary school -- a block from my elementary school one day, the fog and confusion dissipated and my world opened up again. i was no longer alone. the library could not restore my life in china giving back my family and friends, but it did supply my companion, clifford the big red dog, the very hungry caterpillar, the bernstein bears, amelia baedelia -- bedelia and the babysitters club

and sweet valley high. instead i was sitting in claudia's bedroom in stoney brooke, connecticut, munching oreos, hanging out with my friends and fielding babysitting calls just like any other american kid. fans of the babysitter's club may recall that claudia loved to hide junk food in hollow books. that reminded me of home. growing up in a persecuted dis-dent family during china's cultural revolution, my father hid his favorite english books,

many of them banned, under the floor boards of his often ransacked and raided home. he would later become an english literature professor but quickly found that even in his classrooms he was not free to teach his students the commentary the words he loved from mark s twain and charles dickens. he told me frustrated returning home after days of teaching with his favorite books under his arm narrative is power. that message is more important now than ever before. every time i heard this in china, i thought i knew what he meant but i did not really feel it, believe it, or live it until i arrived in america and discovered the safety of books. i taught myself english volume after volume and partsts of america inaccessible to me, i learned i was not too different

from the kids that books so often portrayed and so as i write in beautiful country, from there there was no saving me. i lived and breathed books. books save lives and offer companionship for the lonely and refuge for the persecuted. the darkness and priority that's blending in. my father told me early and often if i could learn to speak english perfectly just like a native speaker, i could say i was born here and aroush no

suspended ands -- arouse no suspicion about my immigration status. i could blend in if i knew what christmas was and what los angeles looked like, i would fit in just like another american kid. that information with access to safety and belonging was freely available to me in one place and one place alone. in my work now as an education lawyer. i see the sanctuary that books offer to thee children that the rest of our societies seems to have forgotten with no money welling them they're loved and

seen and worthy. every single volume offers the voice, the hope, and the guidance they need to dare chart a different path to dream a bigger dream for themselves. for the present and the future this is better for other children landing in one city walking from library to library and avail myself of all the public resources for free. i had countless books and chose for myself the stories i wanted to read and yet even in that freedom, i felt at times lost. the households and dire of anne frank whose identity meant she too had to grow up in hiding.

the giver seeing all that was invisible to others. the glim morays of recognition -- glimmers of recognition were evenou more scantles because they were seen and signaled i might be worthy. if america could love those characters, perhaps i too could be loved. perhaps i was not so different after all. had i groan up in a different -- groan up in a different part of the united states or in a different time, those glimmers may not have become available to me. it's power and nothing matters more than the stories we tell. just days ago the american

library association reported that this past fall found unprecedentedd 330 challenges to their books. in november, i was fortunate to speak at a librarian convention and i was shocked to learn that the act of providing equal access to books and resources has become more politicized and exhausting than ever. the act of banning books is not just happening in our classrooms but happening in our libraries across our nation and our discourse. i'm sure you don't remember a time in your childhood when your parents were god-like. 200 feet tall, all knowing, all encompassing. as long as they were around, you

were safe. for me, that smoke screen faded early. when i landed at jfk airport at age 7, i saw my parents shrink down to mere mortal size. overnight they were reduced to fallible being just as confused and for me, library books and their characters never lost that holy quality. over the years i learned to fear all authority figures under the threat of discovery and the deportation i somehow never feared librarians for they were the host to my best friends, the only being with whom it was safe to be my true self. those friends included charlotte and wilbur, who to this day remain my north star for friendship.

it was particularly odd and when i feel i alone have endured the stress ovmoving in abrupt, distodifficult conditions, i think of mrs. frisbe and the rats of nimn.f it was then and there some 25 years ago that i resolved to become a lawyer just like them and change the stories our country chose to tell inin its courtrooms and its laws, in its books. neither that day or that conviction left me. for the treasures of the books that i discovered are etched into my being. my heart still mourns little anne and old dan from where the red fern grows. still the lights and the silliness of the wayside school and steals itself with the

feminism of a wrinkle in time. but most of all the honor of having found books that reflected me at a time when i needed them gave me a sense that perhaps despite all messaging, i was not singularly unwanted and i waswo perhaps just as worthy s the next child. to this day, whenever i feel scared and lost, there's a few things more comfortable than the sight and smell of books. because you are here at a book

festival at 9:00 a.m. on a saturday, i suspect you can relate. so now that you know a little bit about me, i think it may be safe for me to share a confession. you see, i'm not that different from jerry. sometime over the winter in the fifth grade in 1997 or 1998. , i too had a missing overdue book. as i checked out a new batch of books one afternoon, the was aian said there n problem. i appeared to have a book out that was quickly accruing fines and remembering the system had no records of it and there on the ground what would happen and would i not be allowed to borrow books anymore and get me and my parents thrown into prison from my overdue fee? would i get to read in prison? would i be worst of all, if i went home and indeed no longer have the book whether because i had lost it or because i returned it without record, what would happen? does the library have other copies or would i forever

deprive the other children of that branch of that volume. what had i done? the fear was particularly waive i have because the book in question had been no. 82 in the babysitter's club series. don't worry, you might not have the numbers memorized like i do but that means you're a normal person. no. 82 in the bsc series was called jessie and the troublemaker. it primarily followed jessica and one babysitting charge, danielle roberts. both of these characters penalty the absolute world to me. jessie was the only black member of the babysitters club and felt like her familyla was the only black family in town. like claudia, the only asian member, jessie hit on things like prejudices and ignorance that were all too common in my

life. meanwhile danielle was a child with leukemia. while i was fortunate enough to not have endured anything like what danielle went through, i had a sick mother and we were terrified of all attention from doctors, hospitals, or otherwise. hospitals or otherwise. in jessie's fashion and danielle's experiences apart and then together, i found in a book that reflection of my reality. now i had gone and misplaced that book. so no other child who was struggling and that to me was the absolute worst consequence. in the end, of course the end was far more lenient than cramer suggested. there would be no $100,000

charge for me. whew. she said they'd flag the book in the system and give it six months to reemerge. i promised that i would return home and look thoroughly just in case i really forgotten it somewhere. seeing the tears in my eyes, she choked back a laugh and said don't worry, dear, it always turns up. of course she was right. i had not been at home but a few months later when i inquired about the book at checkout and, and i always did, its absence had become something like a new pet i could not stop thinking about. relief poured over me as i was told that, yes, the book had been found.ld the book had been found. the flag had been removed from my account in the overdue

charges had been growing in my brain were wiped clean. i was free. every individual book mattered because of what it portrayed and the message it shared because oy the hearts. it is uniquely positioned to touch. it motivated me to write my book. that c my story and my life migt matter to just one person. perhaps i could signal to an immigrant child still living in hunger that she too deserved to be on shelves. perhaps i might dare to hope for

my hope to one day connect with just one person out there. to tell them that they are worthy of being seen. isn't that after all why so many of us here today are trying to read, to write, to commune in the power of story telling. but what happens to the fabric of our society, our empathy, connections, communitiesti whene remove one book then another, then another. like a row of dominoes they collapse on each other. the children, teens adults enjoy them. walking around on the book festival in beautiful savannah today, i hope you take a moment to soak it all in.

what an immense privilege and joy it is to be immersed in so many stories. so many perspectives. you don't have to agree with them all. but you are free to hear them all. this is our country at its greatest, at its most beautiful. this is the kind of day that shows us how very fortunate we are to live in these united states. how empowered we are by words that change the world and how we might go forward and share all the stories we're fortunate to hear and it's like one big story and jorge who says i've always imagine that had paradise will be that kind of library.

well, as you walk around paradise today, i hope you might think about all of the ways that you can preserve and it'll be months to come. you have the power to rally for change whether that'sth by dote donating or volunteering at public library. maybe we can live without libraries, people like you and me. maybe, sure, we're too old to change the world, but what about that kid signature down and

opening a -- sitting down and opening a book right now. we have a voice, the champion that helps remind her that her story too is what makes america beautiful. thank you so much. i'm happy to take questions. if you can stay 6 feet apart and was told to say one question per person too. if no one asks anything, i'm going to have to sing and i'm tone deaf. just warning you, it's not a threat.

>> down the line from barnes and noble today. >> at least five to ten of the baby the graphic novel and i haven't been able to expose myself to and tarnish myself through words and i'd be very curious to rate those as well. thank you. >> i wish i could get that

certificate back. >> i was saddened when reading your book because of the parallels by jean kaufman and the 25 years were previous to yours and i was curious to what you see as immigrant experiences now. i think you said 94 for you so 38 years later, how -- 28 yearsa 38 years later, how -- 28 years later, how are the immigrant experiences for people now coming from china. >> thank you for asking that question. the sad truth is i don't see a huge change and advances in the way we talk about immigrants and resources that we make available

to new immigrants. so often of what i see on the ground in china town and walking around new york city and those conditions. the problem with the american dream is that things may have materially changed for me and i'm walking from my fancy home to my fancy law office, on the way there i see young immigrant children going through the trash with their parents still seeing

in their eyes some of the same pains and fears that i myself grappled with decades ago and in those moments, i want to pick up that child and say it'll be okay. you're seeing there's people out there fighting for you and i'm terrified that'll terrify the children more. >> my book club read your book and wondered why you ended it when you did. >> i always wanted to book to focus on the five years and it's odd to say of a memoir but i didn't think of my book as being about me or my life i wanted it to be a celebration to immigrants and new children and very special this universal time in our childhood where we go out in the world and we don't understand what is going on and we're so incredibly open and

vulnerable and we learn to become guarded and learn the things that can save us and be dangerous to us. i wanted to hone in to the precious years because when you >> growing up, my primary means for having a book was the school library and that was most of it for me till i -- i went to law school too. i'm just curious what your feeling is because you are an education lawyer as well and the fact that the last two years so many children have not been able to actually be physically in the school with per hams access to the school library, which is the only place that they can get books. now that they're going back, we can't predict what might happen next year or the year after. your thoughts on that because the school libraries are so important. >> i mean, the pandemic magnified socioeconomic9 divides and when covid-19 were announced, my thought were the childrens that get meals in schools because i relied on those free meals. and once you're not required to be there every day itt may not longer be feasible and no longer

feel safe to get those meals and what happens with the children that don't have books at home and don't have internet access and what i have seen from engaging from the community library with branch on square is these libraries are working on having -- librarians are working on i pads and computers so children can be able to access pdfs and access online and sending out virtual resources every day and making sure that families are attune to them. the librarians have really become the front lines of the pandemic for that underserved community but even so in my work at my firm, i've seen a lot of developmental delays and as we know, one year of missed education, two years of missed education, have ripple effects across the child's future.

so it is everything that we are focusing onto minimize those delays and minimize those gaps and discrepancy but it is a valid concern and i would just say that making those public resources as widely available as possible even for those who may not necessarily have internet access have access to electronic devices should be a first and foremost goal of our governments and agencies and libraries and community members like you. >> thank you. >> thank you.

>> with all the context, the good and the bad, have you run into any of those people as a grown up? >> that everyone in the teachers and students and little girls that want to translate for you and just any of those influences and fortunate to find a close knit and tight knit community and very good people and support and actually i am leaving from here to go straight to the airport because my best friend from the third grade, elaine in the book, is getting married tomorrow and i'm officiating. i'm very excited and i've neverd officiated before so i hope i don't mess it up.

most special is my third grade teacher and the principal put us in touch and i sent her photos of the charlotte's webb copy she gave me at 8 years old and she could not believe i kept it all these years. she sent me cards that i gave her just often full of gibberish that she kept for 28 years, 30 years. i did g not remember. i remembered a little bit, if

you read my book how much of a snarky, sneaky kid i was. in one of the cards was proportedly apologized -- portedly apologizing for speaking chinese and said my friend was speaking it and the riddle what do you call a witch on a beach. to think she thought that line of random ramblings was special enough to keep. it made me cry instantaneously and was so special and she has children of her own and we're planning to meet up in brooklyn when everything get as little less hectic and this book brought about so many developments and connections that i could not have evenen b s

it's opinion special connecting with readers all over. >> everyone like you with whom the book resinated more than i could have thought because it really does prove my initial hypothesis was writing beautiful country and when you peel back all the labels, it's really not different at all. thank you so much.soso [ applause ]. >> to receive a schedule of upcoming programs, author discussions and more, book tv every sunday on cspan2 or online at booktv.org. sell vision for -- television for serious readers. coming from these television copies and more from the charter network.