To her students, Thea Wilson-Scorgie is the librarian who can match a reluctant reader to their next favourite book, point a curious mind toward a subject that sparks a new passion, and make the library feel like a sanctuary of peaceful discovery. So when she announced a recent squash tournament win at a Junior School assembly, more than a few of them saw her in a new light.
Wilson-Scorgie, Junior School Teacher-Librarian at St. Michaels University School, has carried a lifelong passion for squash that she has no intention of giving up, but she says she always knew being a librarian was her calling.
She has built the library into what she describes as “a place of freedom”, where students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 5 come not only to work on assignments, but to discover who they are as readers and thinkers.
”The classroom is about learning to read, and reading for learning,” she said. “The library is about reading for passion and interest. This is the students' chance to get the books they want."
A Low-Tech Haven
That philosophy shapes everything about the way Wilson-Scorgie runs the library. The space is intentionally low-tech, no open internet stations, no screens competing for attention, just books and the conversations they spark. A library notebook follows each child from Kindergarten through Grade 5, tracking favourite reads and growing interests year by year. Circulation numbers reached what Wilson-Scorgie called "astronomical" levels, roughly 7,000 in a single term.
"I really do get to know the students," she said. "It's an informal context a lot of the time. I chat with them about what they want to find, and I see them grow up over the years."
Beyond Story Time
Her lessons stretch well beyond story time. With a Master's in Library and Information Studies, Wilson-Scorgie teaches research skills, information literacy and paraphrasing, building the foundation that carries through to the higher grades. She has introduced Dewey Diners, where students "taste test" nonfiction books at tablecloth-set tables, and blackout poetry projects that transform weeded library books into original creative work. She also runs a Bookworm Club, a Spring Break Reading Challenge that drew 112 participants this year, and opens the library for drop-in hours throughout the summer, something she believes few other school libraries do.
"It wasn't overly attended," she said of the summer program, "but it was attended enough that I felt it was worthwhile. The people that came really valued it."
On the Squash Court
When Wilson-Scorgie is not in the library, she is likely on a squash court. This year has been a strong one competitively, with multiple regional and provincial titles and her first physical trophy, claimed at the Cedar Hill Club Championship. She also sponsors the school's Grade 4 and 5 squash program alongside head coach Grace Thomas, a player she once mentored when Thomas was just starting out.
The sport has shaped how she thinks about learning. "I really don't mind losing," she said. "I prefer winning, but losing with grace, being able to take a loss and see what you can learn from it, that's one of my biggest things." It is a lesson she brings to the students she coaches, and one she sees reflected in her favourite picture book.
After the Fall by Dan Santat reimagines Humpty Dumpty as a character who, after his great fall, must find the courage to climb back up to the wall he once loved. The book resonated so deeply with Wilson-Scorgie that she brought it to her job interview.
"He's an egg," she said. "Of course he becomes a bird. I just love that it opened my mind to something I had never thought of before."
It is the kind of discovery Wilson-Scorgie has spent her career making possible, one student and one book at a time. For her, that is precisely what the library is for: a place where the next page might change everything.
