Tomas and the Library Lady

Tomás loves stories! Grandfather tells them stories every night during the long summers, when the family leaves Texas to pick crops in Iowa. Soon Tomás knows all the stories by heart, and that’s when Papa Grande tells him there is a place full of stories he’s never heard before: the library. When Tomás meets the library lady, nothing is ever the same again.

Tomas and the Library Lady encourages children to look beyond the confines of poverty, language barriers, and cultural intolerance to find joy in reading. The inspiring true story of Tomás Rivera, who grew up in a migrant worker family, befriended a librarian in Iowa, and learned to love books and the places they took him. Tomás went on to a successful career in academia and became the Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside. Adapted from the well-loved book by prolific children’s author Pat Mora, this play can be readily understood by both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences.