Nancy Elsmo remembers Kevin Henkes the child: She was working with children's books at the Racine Public Library and he would come in with his family, including his parents and four siblings. She led the brother who liked sports to baseball books and so on. Kevin went for the illustrated children's books.
Elsmo says she worked at the library 30 years until retiring and saw many children who were wonderful readers. But she never saw anyone like Henkes. He wanted to know everything about the books.