"The Wonderful Happens" is one of the first books you see - open and standing up on a shelf - walking into the new library in the bungalow behind St. Lawrence of Brindisi School in Watts. And that certainly was the underlying theme at the weekday morning grand opening celebration on March 10.

"Opening this library has been a dream for many people even before I came to St. Lawrence five years ago," declared Principal Lilliam Paetzold from a schoolyard stage. "So many people were talking about a library, and then I showed up and they wanted the library to happen. But we thought this was never going to happen. But it has."

Next she chronicled the library's dubious history, from second-hand donated books being shelved in rickety bookshelves and dented file cabinets in hallways and classrooms to a consolidated move into the kitchen of the former convent. But then the educator said some "real saviors" came along who wanted to build a real library: the Shea Foundation, the Steinmetz Foundation and The Wonder of Reading program, which renovates libraries and restocks them with $10,000 worth of new books.

"So the library today doesn't look like the library we thought we were going to get," Paetzold pointed out. "It actually has real bookshelves and stacks like a regular library and 'story stairs' and reading areas and air conditioning, which is a big deal around here. It's beautiful and it's a real library. And we're just so grateful to every single person who did anything to help us."

'A beautiful place'

One of those individuals spoke next. Kriste Dragon, executive director of The Wonder of Reading, reported that this was the children's literacy organization's 206th renovated library. But what made it a "very special occasion for us" was the fact that St. Lawrence's library was the very first built in a Catholic school.

"It's our goal to ensure that every child has a beautiful space that they can come into and that they can find a book from a variety of works, somewhere around a 26-to-1 books-to-student ratio," she said. "Because we think that book choice is really important in developing a love for reading. We think books need to be of a quality that will last and are socially relevant and are up to date giving the most current information."

Dragon stressed that The Wonder of Reading with the two funding foundations "just kept their eyes on the idea that this school is so deserving of a library - that these children deserve the very best in the area, especially when it comes to reading. And here we are today. It's been a tremendous partnership for us already, and we hope this isn't the last one. We hope that we can keep opening libraries in Catholic schools and keep serving children."

The library was blessed by Capuchin Franciscan Father Jesus Vela, pastor of St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church, and named the Father Peter Banks Children's Library for the parish's former pastor.

"Father Peter has put education first in Watts for a very, very long time," Father Vela pointed out. "It is his mission to make sure that every single student at St. Lawrence and the Watts community is educated well and goes onto Catholic high school and college.

"Without Father Peter we wouldn't have what we have here today," the pastor added. "He's the one who really motivates all of us to continue to move forward here at our school."

A lot of books

After the ribbon cutting, students finally got to go inside the library for the first time. They climbed up the gray carpeted "story steps," checked out the flip chart book on human anatomy in the science section, watched and listened to a music video on a digital DVD player and sat down around the sturdy wood tables.

Others walked about staring up at the multi-colored inspirational posters: "Hang out and read at your library," "Reading is a magic trip," "10 great reasons to read" and "Things good readers do." But many just thumbed through the pages of books with enticing titles like "The Secret Olivia Told Me," and "Diary of a Worm."

Sitting down on the story steps, Jasmine Garcia, 11, says her school never even really had an old library before. The sixth-grader believes the new one will help her in her studies. "Since there's a lot of books now, it can make me a better reader because I can come inside here and read," she said. "And now nobody will get bored because all the books are like new and they all seem so interesting."

Jasmine has high hopes of reading all of them before graduating from eighth grade. "I thought that we would just have some more books in class because they really didn't mention the new library until they started building it," she said. "So that's why I'm really happy because now you can just come here and there's a lot more books to read."

Eighth-grader Martin Perez also didn't think St. Lawrence School would ever have a library. "I think it's like a great pleasure to have one," he said. "I don't love reading, but if I have the chance I would come in here every day, honestly. It's a nice peaceful room. You can read. You can do homework."

After a moment, the 14-year-old mused, "It's just a great opportunity to be able to learn, 'cause there's so many books you can read. It's like an adventure. And it actually shows that people care about our learning and for us to succeed in life."