Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous!, August 12, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Library (Hardcover)
My mother met Sarah Stewart, author of THE LIBRARY and sent me an autographed copy of the book. When I read it to my four year old daughter she laughed and laughed at the humor that is sometimes subtle in the text and brought delightfully to life in the illustrations. What fun this book is on my daughter's level and also on mine. And who hasn't walked into a wall trying to vaccuum while reading? So, I'm so greatful this book made its way into my ever growing cases and closets and piles of books. We will be reading it and recommending it to everyone for years to come. So, as my autographed copy says, "Good books are friends for life!" Heidi ("Lucky daughter of [the author's] new friend Jane" Yolen)
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Is this you? Is this your house?, September 30, 2008
When I first saw the cover of "The Library," I had to have this book. My 87-year-old mother, still a voracious reader, tells stories of walking home from school, two miles each way, with a book in front of her face. Her sister and brothers had long left her behind, while she wended her way home, reading in progress. This picture makes me think of my mother and books.
What is it in those books to keep one pulled in, pinned in? At any rate, "The Library" is a paean to readers everywhere. Readers read. Elizabeth Brown is our stereotype, our archetype.
Each illustration shows another facet of the "stereotypical" reader. Early on, Elizabeth eschews toys for books, she reads uncover at night, she is bored by anything but reading. After completing school, she buys a house and becomes a tutor. Always reading.
Finally, she becomes so book-rich, there is no room left in her house. She donates it to the town along with the books for a Free Library. She moves in with a reading friend (who else?) to continue reading.
This is a lovely book, yes, but I have a problem with it. I'm a reader, a retired English teacher who pushed reading, a librarian who pushes a variety of books, yet I have a problem with Elizabeth Brown who reads her entire life. Yes, wow, the joy of reading and all it brings, but the joy of life outside a book and all it brings remains closed to Elizabeth Brown. The book saddens me a little, despite its beauty and nostalgia.
And, yes, my mother knows how to close a book and enjoy the life outside!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend., August 9, 2004
This review is from: The Library (Hardcover)
Certain books recognize a niche and run at it full throttle. If you've ever known a librarian personally (everyone should be so lucky) then you know that this particular profession is obsessed with itself. Librarians love to seek out librarian related movies ("Party Girl", for example), music (Tori Amos's, "Songs of the Librarian"), and best of all... books! So when Sarah Stewart sat down and wrote a book entitled, "The Library", she basically guaranteed that it would be a success with at least one group of people in the world. Fortunately, the book is a hit with another group as well. Kids.
Our heroine is Elizabeth Brown and our heroine's method of entering the story is to fall from the sky into her mother's outstretched laundry linen. Says the text, "Elizabeth Brown/ Entered the world/ Dropping straight down from the sky/ Elizabeth Brown/ Entered the world/ Skinny, nearsighted, and shy". From the beginning the girl is an avid reader. With her constant companions at her side (a stuffed teddy bear and a continually serene housecat) we watch as Elizabeth Brown goes to school and breaks her own bunk bed with the weight of her books. She lends them to friends and eschews the lure of the opposite sex. Older still, she starts tutoring and lives on her own, reading all the while. Then one day there's no denying it any longer. "She had to face the awful fact". There are just too many books in the house. Without further ado her house becomes a library and she moves in with a female friend. To the end of their days they continue to read, "And turned page... after page... after page".
For readers (especially shy nearsighted ones) who have turned their lives over wholeheartedly to the reading of literature, this book is the ultimate compliment. As a Horn Book Magazine review once said, it shows a woman, "whose life is graceful and meaningful". Reading it myself, I love it. No question. But there is that nagging little voice at the back of my head that questions whether or not Elizabeth Brown did, in fact, lead a "meaningful" life. I suppose she did in the sense that she brought books to other people by opening her library. But her own life was, in a sense, squandered in books. Though she did have a friend at the end, she had no close relationships or fellow human companionship for quite some time. Then again, it's a good children's book that makes you ponder the meaning of what constitutes a rich and full life. Such big questions for such small packages.
As for the illustrations by David Small... they are without fault. I've read a lot of David Small books in my day, and to my mind this one is his best work in terms of skill. I've heard mumbles in the bookselling community that Small (married to the book's author Sarah Stewart) tends to make her the star of his illustrations on a regular basis. Just check out "The Money Tree" if you don't believe me. In this case, Small's somewhat choppy style has been tamed and given a great deal of depth and feeling. There are tiny evocative details in this story that charm as often as they impress. In a section that describes the seasons, a small blue colored bird grasps a flowering tree's branch between its little clawed feet. Delicate line drawings of leaves and snowflakes fall on either side of the text. And on each and every page the corners of the illustrations are held within beautiful cornerpieces. For kids, there's the added fun of trying to find Elizabeth Brown's teddy bear and cat in almost every illustration.
The book takes a love of reading to a safe extreme. It teaches children the joy of the process while, at the same time, being a fun and friendly book in and of itself. It's a little peculiar to read a book about reading (especially if you're a child) but I don't think they'll mind. In the end, it's so filled with a love of literature that even the most die hard television couch potato who happens to see it will be charmed. Altogether, a wonderful little work.
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