The library is closed

for the moment. Thankfully this is not a permanent state of affairs. Our local library is actually being expanded and the temporary closure is because of the building work going on. 
I go in and out of that library at least once a week. Other people use it even more frequently.
Miss W. has been in the habit of going in on Saturday mornings for the past year. It is one of the places she will happily go to alone. This  year her father told her she was old enough to find her own way home on Friday afternoons. (She goes home from her boarding school each weekend.) She was a bit anxious about that but the first few weeks have not thrown up any difficulties. 
The first thing she does of course is head around here to tell me about her week at school, get any help she needs with her homework and tell me of anything else that needs to be done. 
And yesterday she also prowled along our bookshelves.
    "I should have got more books from the library last Saturday."
    "I did wonder about that," I told her. 
    "You need to get some more books so I can read them."
I looked at her and she added, "Yes, I know. There are quite enough books in this house - and in ours."
But she is at that awkward stage. She is reading some "teen" fiction but a lot of it doesn't appeal to her. She isn't terribly interested in boy-girl situations. She doesn't like some of the very popular authors like Stephanie Meyer or Suzanne Collins ("David Almond is better written" and "Why doesn't Nicola (Morgan) write a new book?")
It's why the library is so important to her. She can take her time browsing the shelves. She will read a few pages before deciding whether to take an author she doesn't know.  She borrows non-fiction from the adult shelves. ("I found a cool cook book and I'm going to try..." and "I wanted to know about....so I...") Oh yes, she uses the library well.
I hesitated to suggest it but I did,
      "You could go to the library at..."
It's a bike ride away. She is capable of doing it and her father would give permission but I know she would hesitate to go that far alone even with a phone in her pocket to get help if she needed it.
      "I have to go to a meeting in the street opposite...in the old building you came to once. If you want to go then you can ride down there with me but it will be the afternoon. Oh, and they have some books in other languages down there."
She nodded, thanked me enthusiastically and went off. After her trip to Italy over Christmas and New Year her Italian has improved considerably. Her French teacher tells me her French is "well above the rest of the class" too. This morning there was an email. She is going somewhere with her father instead but  he has suggested they go to the library the following day. It will be one of those outings where they take a ride, buy ice cream and generally enjoy themselves.
Ms W. reads. She prefers books to television. She has played a few computer games with friends and tells me they are "boring". Her schoolwork is becoming increasingly important but she is organised and it doesn't consume her yet. I hope it doesn't because, at the bottom of the email, there were the words, "It's just as well there is another library. I need my book-fix. I'm addicted."