Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows library staff across Canada to collaboratively select their favourite forthcoming titles. Using CataList, the online catalogue service and order management tool available for free to libraries, library staff can endorse the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Juvenile, and Young Adult titles they want to recommend to their patrons. The titles with the most recommendations become Loan Stars picks!

But who are the authors and illustrators behind these great Loan Stars reads?

We find out in our series Meet the Loan Stars.

Meet Sara Goudarzi

Sara Goudarzi’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, National Geographic News, The Adirondack Review and Drunken Boat, among others. She is the author of Leila’s Day at the Pool and Amazing Animals from Scholastic Inc. Sara has taught writing at NYU and is a 2017 Writers in Paradise Les Standiford fellow and a Tin House alumna. Born in Tehran, she grew up in Iran, Kenya, and the US and currently lives in Brooklyn.

You can find Sara’s latest novel, The Almond in the Apricot, as part of the January & February 2022 Loan Stars Adult list!

Learn all about Sara’s passion for libraries, book recommendations, and more in her interview below.

If you could visit any library in the world, where would you go?

After my father told me about The Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt, I became fascinated with the idea of a centre that contained so much of the knowledge of the ancient world. For its time, it was a very significant library and though it no longer exists in its original form, I would love to travel back in time just to take a peek at all the scrolls it housed.

Do you have a favourite librarian, real or fictional?

I grew up on three continents and libraries were a constant fixture in my life. At each one that I patronized, librarians helped me pick out books and gave me the space and tools to dream and learn. I really can’t pick a favourite as every librarian I encountered expanded my world with their unique recommendations.

Which book would you choose to recommend to library patrons?

I would be the worst librarian because I’d send every patron home with more books than the library allows them to check out. For fiction I’d start with All the Light We Cannot See, The Snow Child, Continental Drift, My Brilliant Friend, Einstein’s Dreams, The Dutch House, Loving Day, Fates and Furies, Americanah, Emperor of the Air, Farthest South & Other Stories, The Music of Chance, We Show What We Have Learned and Things Fall Apart.

Cover of The Almond in the Apricot by Sara Goudarzi

What does being a Loan Stars pick mean to you?

Librarians are nothing short of superheroes as they help run these wonderful community centres capable of shaping lives. So, it’s a great honour to have my book be a Loan Stars pick in the company of writers whose work I’m so looking forward to reading.

And it’s an honour to have you on our list. Thank you, Sara!

Are you a Loan Stars-recommended author or illustrator who wants to be featured on our blog? Get in touch with us to get started.

Until next time!