MISS BROOKS LOVES BOOKS! (AND I DON’T)

Guaranteed to be warmly welcomed by librarians everywhere, this paean to the joys of reading will find an enthusiastic audience among kids and parents as well. The first-grade narrator is clearly an iconoclast—and a curmudgeon. She wears the same scruffy overalls and striped hat (pulled down to her eyes) throughout, turns away from reading circle to pursue her own interests and doesn’t even bother with a Halloween costume. She looks askance at Miss Brooks, the tall, lanky (and, in her opinion, overenthusiastic) librarian who dresses up for storytime and urges her listeners to share their favorites with the group. After the narrator rejects her classmates’ picks, Miss Brooks sends yet another pile home, with similar results. When her remarkably patient mother opines that she is “as stubborn as a wart,” however, a seed is planted. A book with warts (Shrek) is found, loved and shared with great success. Bottner’s deadpan delivery is hilarious, while Emberley’s exaggerated illustrations, executed in watercolor and pencil by way of computer, bring her charmingly quirky characters perfectly to life. In a word: lovable. (Picture book. 5-8)