Google Comes Through
Sometimes Google isn't my friend. Here are a few topics I've researched that more or less led me to the brink of insanity: dyslexia, headaches, lumps on collarbones, certificate of citizenship, giardia, dog training, french cooking, how to reinstall your printer, and rabbits. Google is going to send me to an early grave.

But this time Google came through. I was looking for Jane Potter, the co-author of African American Who Were First. And I found her. Then, through a bit of finagling with a writer's group, I sent an email that I asked to be forwarded to her. Guess what? She wrote back!

She and I have been exchanging emails this past week, and she is so happy to know that her book is changing our lives. Turns out African American Who Were First is out of print, but she also wrote African American Firsts: Famous, Little-Known and Unsung Triumphs of Blacks in America. In 2002 she wrote a new version of the book. A completely updated and expanded versions, still called African American Firsts, with Obama on the cover was published in 2009. It has lots more people and photographs, so you can bet we'll be purchasing that one for our permanent library.

Joan was also kind enough to ask for my children's names so that she can personally write a note to each of them. How cool is that?

My introverted personality does not often go out on a limb, but this is the perfect example of why I should and should do it more often. The world is at my doorstep, and I just need to reach out and grasp it.