So You Want to Build a Library

May 10, 2021
Believing that “there is no better place on Earth than where stacks and stacks of books are kept,” a brown-skinned child with a ponytail imagines engineering a library of their own. The child scouts a picturesque waterside location, snags materials such as a table and a vehicle, then asks myriad fanciful characters (a red-haired giant, two brown-skinned sprites) to help with the build. Once the library is erected—it’s a haphazard towerlike structure replete with a slide—the protagonist fills the space with the expected (books on myriad topics), the realistic (“LOTS and LOTS of ladders”), and the unlikely (a sundae bar, waterslide, and zip line). Slick, unlined art by Basil in lemony yellow, mauve, and baby blue matches Leslie’s enthusiastic text, portraying fanciful figures—a sloth on skates, a snail in a baker’s toque, a guitar-playing waterfowl—emerging from a book. Kids often find autonomy in reading, an idea that these creators take to its logical extreme—and a tack that young library lovers intent on calling the shots are sure to appreciate. Ages 4–7.