After growing up and attending university in Illinois – where she met her now-husband as a student – Mary Tweedy spent a year in Orlando as a young married before coming to Miami in 1974. A retired educator and curriculum support and development specialist, she continues to work with Miami-Dade Public Schools as a consultant-liaison for EduSmart, an online science program used by the district for grades 4, 5, and 8. She’s been attending Miami Book Fair for 25 years.
You were a teacher for 45 years, and after retiring from the district you’ve continued to support students and educators. Tell me a bit about that.
My work at the school system was really satisfying, and now that I’m consulting for EduSmart I still have interactions with so many teachers – some who were my own students! – and I’m still doing professional development with them. I’m also an officer of the Dade County Science Teachers’ Association, and at our annual banquet I often see teachers I’ve worked with and supported over the years, and many of them talk about what they got out of the professional development they’ve received from me. It’s rewarding to hear.
You’ve been in Miami since 1974 – how did you find out about the Fair?
Through the Miami Herald. We got the paper delivered every day – still do – and I read about it there.
¿Cuánto tiempo llevas siendo un Amigo?
At least 10 years – I love being able to get tickets ahead of time and getting into the room early, but the best thing is being seated up front.
The first Fair was in 1984, when downtown Miami looked a lot different.
Yes, I remember having to drive down to the placement office for my interview when I first got here – in a Pinto! [laughs] – and being scared to death that the car would break down and I’d be stranded there. [laughs]
The whole area has been completely transformed, in part due to the Fair. What do you think it’s brought to the city?
There are a lot of great things to do in Miami and a lot of them cost a lot of money, but the Fair doesn’t. It’s a fantastic annual event with a very inexpensive entrance fee for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to share a love of books and reading. It’s so affordable to spend a day there – kids under 12 get in free! And it provides so many different experiences that build community. I think Miami Book Fair is just fabulous.
When I worked at the department of science downtown – all the curriculum departments are there – I’d get so jealous when the language arts people came back from the classroom visits the Fair had arranged and tell us about the fun they’d had meeting the authors. [laughs] And then on Friday you bring all these kids to the Fair!
That’s part of the Generation Genius Authors program, where the kids get to meet the authors and also go to Children’s Alley.
The Fair’s fantastic. I always try to get to one or two programs during the week, and then I’m there all weekend. Last year my daughter and a friend came with me on Saturday, and my son came with me on Sunday.
Is there one program from the 2025 Fair that really stands out for you?
Hands down, Dave Barry y Carl Hiaasen. I’ve been reading both of them since their days at the Herald, and they write such smart, funny, irreverent stories that confront the absurdity of the times we’re in. I search the program guide every year to see if they’re coming back.
Thinking about all the Fairs you’ve attended, who’s the author who most affected you?
Pat Conroy. I remember being so captivated by him – he was such a master storyteller – as he talked about the influence of his mother and how she was the person who led him to a love of reading and literature and writing. And that those things in turn helped him overcome his family’s dysfunction and his personal struggles, and how those experiences shaped the narratives of his books. He really moved me.
What was your favorite book when you were a kid?
Beezus and Ramona por Beverly Cleary, about a 9-year-old Beezus struggling to get along with her younger sister, Ramona. But as a teacher, I discovered she’d written a whole series focused on Ramona, and that’s when I found my real favorite: Ramona Quimby, Age 8. I was teaching third grade at the time and because in the book Ramona is in third grade, too, I made sure to always have a copy of it in my classroom library and to open the school year with a read-aloud of the book. All of Cleary’s books are wonderful; she created so many relatable, humorous, and realistic stories about children’s lives that are still relevant today.
Name an author you’d love to see at this year’s Fair.
Ann Patchett. She has a new book out called Whistler, and I read somewhere that it’s written in a different style than her previous books. I’d love to ask her what made her change things up for this one.
Entrevista realizada por Elisa Chemayne Agostinho; las respuestas se han editado por motivos de espacio y claridad.