Review by Booklist Review
In this celebration of libraries as bastions of the imagination, a young girl dutifully does her chores with her grandmother, hanging laundry and cleaning the dishes. But her favorite chore is returning books to the library. She hurries through the streets to get to the Carnegie Library, where she has the power of escaping the world by entering foreign experiences through books. With reading, she has the freedom to be anything. Through books she can be other people, like "a cook" or "a crook." She can experience feelings, like being "in love" or being "unhappy." She can even reach more abstract states, like being "jazz." Ironically, she learns that being taken to these other realms--surfing rainbows and sailing dreams--through books is ultimately one of the best ways to come back to yourself. Libraries, she says, are a place "to be you" and also just "to be." When she comes home, after more chores, she takes up her library books again, to "be another me." The message is a powerful one, delivered with a sparseness of well-chosen words. The artwork, in a graphic design style, is playful and inspiring. Every lover of books, young or old, will see themselves in this story.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Poetic lines sing libraries' praises in this brief tribute from Giovanni. Framed by first-person narration describing a trip to the Carnegie Library, spare verse builds on the phrase "A library is:// a place to be free/ to be in space." Chromatic digital renderings by Robinson accompany the text, layering geometric shards of color and light. In one spread, the Black-presenting narrator stirs batter while the same figure reaches in through a window to take a cookie ("to be a cook/ to be a crook"). Another depicts a trumpet being blown alongside a blueprint-like depiction of the instrument ("to be blue/ to/ be/ jazz"). When the bookworm returns home, chores yield to cozy moments reading while snuggling a rainbow-hued blanket--an uplifting conclusion that's aptly suggestive of books' appeal. An author's note concludes. Ages 4--8. (Sept.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
In this picture-book celebration of libraries and reading, poet Giovanni writes about the Carnegie Library, which she regularly visited as a child. Robinson's digital art resembles vibrant collages and features a young Black girl with jaunty pigtails tied with twirly yellow ribbons. Her puffy aqua dress with a Peter Pan collar helps set the time period in the 1950s. The little girl explains why she loves her library: it's "a place to be free / to be in space / to be a cook / to be a crook / to be in love / to be unhappy." She thinks about being "quick and smart" but also "contained and cautious"; she imagines herself playing jazz and sailing. Returning home with her stack of books, the girl carries out her chores before going back to reading, wrapped up in a brightly colored patchwork quilt, the patches echoing the covers of the volumes she's reading -- so that in her daily life she is constantly surrounded by love and vibrancy. In a touching author's note Giovanni talks about her own childhood experience at the "colored" library, where a special librarian would get her poetry books from the main library. Susan Dove Lempke September/October 2022 p.58(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A love letter to libraries. A Black child, with hair in two puffballs tied with yellow ribbons, a blue dress with a Peter Pan collar, and black patent leather Mary Janes, helps Grandmother with the housework, then, at Grandmother's suggestion, heads to the library. The child's eagerness to go, with two books under an arm and one in their hand, suggests that this is a favorite destination. The books' wordless covers emphasize their endless possibilities. The protagonist's description of the library makes clear that they are always free to be themselves there--whether they feel happy or sad, whether they're reading mysteries or recipes, and whether they feel "quick and smart" or "contained and cautious." Robinson's vibrant, carefully composed digital illustrations, with bright colors that invite readers in and textures and patterns in every image, effectively capture the protagonist's passion for reading and appreciation for a space where they feel accepted regardless of disposition. In her author's note, Giovanni states that she spent summers visiting her grandmother in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she went to the Carnegie Branch of the Lawson McGhee Library. She expresses gratitude for Mrs. Long, the librarian, who often traveled to the main library to get books that Giovanni could not find in their segregated branch. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A lushly illustrated homage to librarians who provide a welcome and a home away from home for all who enter. ((Picture book. 4-7)) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
