Similar to Evelyn Gregory branch, Victoria Village Library fit right into its neighbourhood setting, taking its place among the generous number of trees along Sloane Avenue in Scarborough. With pale green walls and leafy views from its high windows, Victoria Village’s interior was like a cheerful and well-stocked treehouse. Although built on a modest rise, I felt a generous sense of elevation when I looked out the big glass door in the west wall. From there, I could see high rise apartments in the distance and trees in the foreground between the library’s parking lot and that of a local school. Loads of fluffy clouds and blue sky further expanded the view.
When I turned towards the north wall, I noticed that the ceiling was lower over the Kids and Teen’s Section, creating a long and narrow space illuminated by more than a dozen high rectangular windows side by side. These windows served up a vision of mystical sky slices filled with leaves. More pragmatically, this part of the library contained ESL materials as well as offerings in French, Chinese, and Hindi.
In the Teen Zone, two homemade robot friends oversaw a busy study table from on top of a bookshelf. Both robots wore pie tins on their heads and had protruding egg-carton eyes taped to their aluminum faces. Large disposable baking tins provided their torsos, and their arms were foil-covered paper towel rolls with hands made from fuzzy silver pipe cleaners.
In the northeast corner of the kid’s section, a tired coyote rested its head on a bin of blocks. I wondered how he had ended up there and hoped it wasn’t a severe case of nausea. With his tongue hanging out and head tilted back, this poor coyote looked uncomfortable at best and sick at worst.
The rest of the main level consisted of a comfortable reading lounge and shelves of adult fiction and non-fiction. Though small, Victoria Village also boasted a downstairs community room. It was locked, but I was able to take a picture of a jolly puppet theatre from the hallway. Thanks to its north windows, the basement level was almost as sunny as the upper one.
I was reluctant to leave this restful branch, so I walked slowly around the north side of the building. There I discovered the tree responsible for filling the interior window panes so beautifully. With the setting sun pausing on its branches, it seemed the perfect image to close a blog post!
