With the retirement of Shelley Skaar, EHS has gotten a new librarian. Here, we welcome Ms. Spradlin back to EHS.
This is Ms. Spradlin’s 30th year with Eastmont, she previously taught English and History for 23 years. This year as a librarian makes it her 7th year, a position that she loves.
“I love that it’s busy and there’s always something new to learn. I’ve loved meeting the new staff who’ve arrived since I was here a few years ago, and I hope I can continue to make the library a safe and comfortable space for students who want to hang out, have a nice place to study or relax, or hopefully want to find a great new book to read.”
Ms. Spradlin comes to the high school from Eastmont Junior High. She discussed the contrasts between the two age groups.
“Moving to the high school has been great because I taught here for over 20 years before I moved to the junior high to become their librarian. It’s been so fun to get to work with the older students again and get to see all the colleagues I taught with before.”
As a librarian and a bookworm, Ms. Spradlin has her favorite books that include both fiction and nonfiction.
“I could give you a list a mile long because my favorite book is often the one I’m reading at the moment. I love nonfiction history and memoirs, as well as fantasy, historical, and dystopian fiction. Here are just a few of the books/series I’ve loved the most and often read again every few years.
– The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I often reread these every year. I love them!
– Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie. It’s a great nonfiction book about the last Russian Czar and his family who were murdered in the Russian Revolution during WWI.
– Any nonfiction book by Neal Bascomb. He writes really interesting narrative nonfiction books about WWI and WWII, as well as a few other topics. My favorites of his are Hunting Eichman and The Winter Fortress.
– The Seamstress by Sarah Tuval Bernstein. It’s about a Jewish woman who survived the Ravensbruck concentration camp during the Holocaust. It’s a lesser known camp because it was primarily for female “prisoners” but the conditions were as terrible as the other camps in WWII.
– All of the historical fiction books by Ruta Sepetys. She’s a great young adult author who writes about little known but often tragic events in history. Her most famous books are Between Shades of Gray, I Must Betray You, and Fountains of Silence.
– Tracy Deonn’s new young adult fantasy series called Legendborn. The final book in the trilogy comes out next year, I think. I can’t wait! It’s a fantastic series about a teenage girl who finds out there’s a dangerous and powerful magical connection to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in our modern world. She also uses the “root magic” passed down through her black ancestors to combat the evil that’s arrived in her town. It’s thrilling!”
