A cogent, warming reminder that public libraries have always been more than just repositories for books.
A love letter to a children’s librarian.
Title notwithstanding, this fond semi-memoir focuses not so much on how a librarian fostered a love of books and reading (though there is some of that) as on how a library changed one child’s life. Looking back on a time when her large, White family had no house or home aside from overcrowded temporary lodgings with relatives, the correspondent recalls discovering her local library. Within, there was space enough for all, toys and a puppet stage amid the shelves, a large window for people-watching, and a welcoming children’s librarian (also White, clad in a skirt and a fuzzy cardigan). The librarian was always good for a warm hug, listened to what she said, and made her feel “safe and happy.” Inspired to give others the same sort of “Library Home,” the child (like the author) grows up to be a librarian, and in closing scenes she appears as a cardigan-clad adult, tending attentively to a racially diverse group of smiling young visitors. Along with portraying both librarians as calm, self-confident sorts, Galotta enriches the nostalgic undertones with glimpses of lush flowers, tiny robots, a dragon, and other imaginary elements. In an afterword with photos Sigwarth describes the reunion recorded on the NPR program This American Life that sparked her tribute. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A cogent, warming reminder that public libraries have always been more than just repositories for books. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-31390-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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