17 Nov / Library Day by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell [in Booklist]
One fine Saturday a father and son visit a new library together for the first time. While his father explores “the grown-up shelves,” the boy enjoys story hour, makes a new friend, and discovers today’s library is even more than a treasure trove of books. The boy leaves with a library card of his own and plans for his next Saturday date with Dad.
Like their parent-child protagonists, writer Anne Rockwell and artist Lizzy Rockwell are a mother-daughter team with several titles to their shared name (their Apples and Pumpkins, 2011, is featured as one of four take-home titles). Their latest is certainly sweet – two generations sharing a new bastion of learning – though little about the story is particularly memorable.
If anything lingers amid the predictability, it’s the fleeting strangeness that the father disappears for the majority of the book and that book choices from a virtually unlimited supply might surely have been more diversely inspiring. Still, for those about to make a visit, this ought to ramp up anticipation.
Review: “Books for Youth,” Booklist Online, November 12, 2015
Readers: Children
Published: 2016