One of the greatest perks of being a member of the Association of Booksellers for Children is having access to the ABC listserv. From it I learn about what my colleagues are reading and enjoying, what problems they’re trying to solve, what advice they have for their fellow booksellers, what entertaining anecdotes they have to share about their daily encounters with customers, AND what their thoughts are on news matters like that I blogged about earlier this week, about the new law that’s creating headaches for Indiana’s booksellers.

Piggybacking on the Indiana discussion, some booksellers have written to the ABC listserv with other recent accounts of censorship happening in their own states. Luan Stauss of Laurel Book Store in Oakland, California filled us in on the story of a teacher in (again) Indiana who was given a year’s suspension for using the book The Freedom Writers Diary in her classroom after having been told not to do so by school administrators.

Laurel also shared a great story about how one of her customers expressed her own opinion on the story: A woman came into the store and explained that she’d been invited to a one-year-old’s birthday party. Guests attending the party had been asked to bring items for a time capsule to be opened on the child’s 16th birthday. The customer bought a copy of The Freedom Writer’s Diary (purchased from Laurel’s store) to go in the time capsule alongside an article about the aforementioned teacher’s suspension, with the hope that 15 years from now issues like this one will seem "completely ridiculous."

I love the hopeful spin this customer is placing on own time capsule entry, and I also LOVE the idea of hosting a one-year-old’s birthday party with such a forward-thinking theme (both literally and figuratively)! After all, no one-year-old is ever old enough to appreciate the concept of their birthday in the first place, let alone care what type of gifts they receive. Why not, then, create an opportunity that will speak volumes to a kid several years down the road? I can’t imagine opening a more meaningful or interesting gift on your 16th birthday!!

I think it might even beat the letter I got to open on my 22nd birthday — one that I’d written to my "future" self at 11 years of age.

What would YOU put in a 16th birthday time capsule that would be opened 15 years from now? While you think about it, go ahead and shoot your future self an e-mail over at FutureMe.org.