Today, Thursday, February 6, 2025, the Seymour Community welcomed author Baptiste Paul to share his book “To Carnival: A Celebration In Saint Lucia”. This was a collaboration between our library and the Seymour School District. The project was spearheaded by the district’s school media specialist, Michelle Erickson. (She is holding up the book in the photo.) Michelle also serves on the library boards of our public library and the Black Creek Village Library.
We are grateful to her for her vision and immense organizational skills. As a result, Baptiste met with students in both Seymour and Black Creek schools. He also made appearances at our library and the Black Village Library. Thanks to Black Creek library director, Katie Rice, for her willingness to hop on board with this just one month into her position!
It was a beautiful presentation and participants learned about life on the island of St. Lucia including these words: mannikou (a type of possum), jacquot (a type of parrot) and zanndoli (a type of lizard). Baptiste stressed to keep trying and believe that you can achieve anything you set your heart to! He is a testament to this philosophy…he writes each day and he travels all over the globe sharing his books and storytelling talents.
We were fortunate to have this visit today! 
Here, Baptiste takes a selfie with local author Susan Manzke. (She is our Thursday morning volunteer shelver!) Susan knows Baptiste’s wife Miranda well because Miranda is an author, too. Susan and Miranda had met with other local authors at our library, back in the day, as a chapter of SCBWI–the Society (of) Children’s Book Writers (&) Illustrators. There are so many lovely circles of connection at our library!