The Children’s Department of C.H. Booth Library received a special donation, Thursday, March 19, delivered in two boxes by Sandy Hook resident Julia Provey. Inside the boxes were more than two dozen children’s books, gifts of children’s book illustrators/authors Ted and Betsy Lewin.

Ms Provey has known the Lewins since she was a child, growing up across the street from them in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The Lewins, said Ms Provey, were among numerous illustrators and artists living in the neighborhood, and are good friends of her parents. Her parents had met the Lewins when they were all students at the nearby Pratt Institute.

“Ted would use people in the neighborhood for models in his early illustrations,” Ms Provey said.

A resident of Sandy Hook for 20 years, come September, Ms Provey said that she knew they were meant to live here when she stopped by the library book sale — then held on the lawn of the Main Street building — and discovered a copy of a book Mr Lewin had illustrated years before, using her family members and neighbors.  It was a nice welcome to Newtown, she said, and the beginning of her love of the local library.

“I’ve always taken advantage of the library, and the Children’s Department, especially, as the kids were growing up,” she said. She was very upset when she heard about the February 17 flood and the damage it had caused to that section of the library.

“I bumped into Betsy [Lewin] at a singing party at my mother’s home last weekend,” Ms Provey said, “and asked if they could donate any books. She gave me two boxes of them.”

The C.H. Booth Library has hosted the Lewins for book signings, and Ms Provey said the couple was enthusiastic about doing what they could to help the library replenish its book collection. Over 10,000 books in the Children’s Department were lost to water damage in the February flood.

“It worked out very nicely,” Ms Provey said, and she was happy to deliver the books to the library.

Booth Library Children’s Librarian Lana Bennison was delighted, she said, to receive the donation.

“The Lewins are both very talented. The list of books they have written or illustrated is long,” said Ms Bennison. To have so many new books to add to the children’s collection is a treat, she said.

The Lewins are both recipients of Caldecott Honors, awarded annually for excellence in children’s picture books. Among the books given to the C.H. Booth Library are Top To Bottom Down Under, and Puffling Patrol, written and illustrated by both of the Lewins; Giggle, Giggle, Quack, illustrated by Betsy Lewin; and American, Too, illustrated by Ted Lewin.

“It’s so nice that the Lewins would think to give the library these books. People understand what treasures children’s books are,” Ms Bennison said.

The books will be processed and shelved in the near future, ready for young readers to enjoy.

“This gesture is really appreciated,” Ms Bennison said. “It was so nice of Julia, and so nice of the Lewins.”