The Campaign for America's Libraries

In this video, author Sarah Jio shares her special memories of libraries, reaching back to those summer days when her mother would take her and her three siblings to the library.

"It was our favorite day of the week, and we would load our baskets up with books," she says.

She also remembers storytimes at the library, where she would enjoy hearing librarians tell stories. In particular, she recalls one room with a special child's door that she would enter for storytime.

As a teen, she remembers, she would wander through the library, where she would escape her "teenage angst."

"Libraries were always a wonderful home for me, a second home for me growing up," she says.

She also has special memories of school librarians, who introduced her to books she still reads to her children.

Sarah Jio is the New York Times best-selling author of Blackberry Winter, The Violets of March (a Library Journal Best Book of 2011), The Bungalow and The Last Camellia, which will be published in May by Penguin.

According to her website, she has written thousands of articles for national magazines and newspapers including Redbook, O, The Oprah Magazine, Cooking Light, Glamour, SELF, Real Simple, Fitness, Marie Claire, Hallmark magazine, Seventeen, The Nest, Health, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, The Seattle Times, Parents, Woman’s Day, American Baby, Parenting and Kiwi.

She has also appeared as a commentator on NPR’s "Morning Edition."

She lives in Seattle.