Table of Contents
LIBRARY MYSTERIES
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In David A. Adler’s Young Cam Jansen series, Cam – her nickname is short for “camera” – has a photographic memory, which helps her solve mild mysteries. In Young Cam Jansen and the Library Mystery (Puffin, 2002), for example, Cam, her father, and friend Eric visit the library where Cam first checks out a mystery, then solves an actual mystery involving a missing shopping list. For ages 5-8. |
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In Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Deserted Library Mystery – a volume in the Boxcar Children series – Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny set out to save an old boarded-up library from being torn down, and end up dealing with a mysterious intruder and a Civil War sword. For ages 7-10. |
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In Eth Clifford’s Help! I’m a Prisoner in the Library (Sandpiper, 2004), sisters Mary Rose and Jo-Beth – prosaically looking for a bathroom – end up locked in a peculiar library full of eerie Victorian artifacts. In a blizzard. A mild mystery for ages 7-10. |
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In Dori Hillestad Butler’s The Buddy Files: The Case of the Library Monster (Albert Whitman and Company, 2012), detective dog Buddy – also therapy dog at the Four Lakes Elementary School – tackles the mystery of the elusive creature (ghost? monster?) in the school library. Told in the first person by Buddy, who makes great paw-print-bulleted lists. For ages 7-10. |
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In Avi’s Who Stole the Wizard of Oz? (Yearling, 1990), Toby’s twin sister Becky has been accused of stealing a rare copy of The Wizard of Oz from the library. Together they set out to clear her name and discover the real thief. A suspenseful mystery involving clever bookish clues. For ages 7-10. |
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In Chris Grabenstein’s Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library (Yearling, 2014), Luigi Lemoncello, the worlds’ most famous game maker, has designed the town’s new library – and 12 lucky winners will be spending the night there in a lock-in before the library’s opening day. The problem: when morning comes, there’s still no way to get out. Packed with thrills and puzzles. And there are sequels. For ages 8-12. |
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Jenn McKinlay’s Library Lover’s Mystery series stars Lindsey Norris, library director of the Briar Creek Public Library, who – in this growing series of bookish books – solves mysteries in her spare time. In Books Can Be Deceiving (Berkley, 2011), Lindsey’s friend Beth – children’s librarian and hopeful author – is suspected of murdering a visiting New York City editor. For teens and adults. |
LIBRARY POEMS
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J. Patrick Lewis’s Please Bury Me in the Library (Harcourt Children’s Books, 2005) is an illustrated collection of sixteen bookish poems, among them “What If Books Had Different Names?” For ages 7-11. |
| Read Nikki Giovanni’s My First Memory (of Librarians). | |
| Read In the Library by Charles Simic. | |
| Read Branch Library by Edward Hirsch. | |
| See In a Library by Emily Dickinson. |
STRANGE AND MAGICAL LIBRARIES
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In William Joyce’s picture book The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2012), after a dreadful windstorm sweeps away everything he owns, Morris meets a lady who gives him a mysterious flying book. The book leads him to an extraordinary library where many flying books “nest,” and there Morris settles down to live, read, care for the books, and write a book of his own. Years pass, and finally Morris finishes writing his book and decides that it’s time to move on. Away he flies, pulled by a flock of flying books – but leaving his own book behind. Then a little girl arrives – and Morris Lessmore’s book flies up to her and opens its pages. And she begins to read. A visually gorgeous and fascinating surreal story for ages 4 and up. |
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In Edward Eager’s Seven-Day Magic (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1999), five children find a mysterious red book at the library that grants wishes. They have an adventurous week with a dragon, a wizard, and a spot of time travel – but the book has to be returned to the library in seven days. For ages 8-12. |
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Michael Dahl’s Attack of the Paper Bats (Stone Arch Books, 2007) is the first of the Library of Doom series, in which a mysterious Librarian presides over a fearsome collection of the world’s most dangerous books. Here, a strange book falls open, its pages flutter in the wind, and turn into razor-sharp paper bats. Other titles in the series include The Creeping Bookends, The Golden Book of Death, and The Smashing Scroll. For ages 9-12. |
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In Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (Scholastic, 2007), the evil Librarians have a powerful secret network and are plotting to take over the world. Up against them are 13-year-old Alcatraz Smedley and company – all named for famous prisons, and armed with Talents and amazing glasses. Alcatraz, whose Talent is for breaking things, receives a gift on his 13th birthday from his missing parents: a bag of sand, which is promptly stolen. It turns out that the sand is important: it can be used to forge special lenses through which Alcatraz will be able to read the mysterious Forgotten Language. The first of a series for ages 9-12. |
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In Garth Nix’s Lirael (HarperCollins, 2016), one of the Abhorsen series, Lirael is an assistant librarian in the vast underground Library of Clayr, a storehouse of magical books and weapons. For ages 12 and up. |
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In Jorge Luis Borges’s famous short story “The Library of Babel,” the universe is a library – an infinite expanse of interlocking hexagonal rooms, each filled with bookshelves. The library, though its order seems random and meaningless, is believed to contain all knowledge, but the difficulty in finding anything in it has led the despairing inhabitants to propose various courses of action. A classic for teenagers and adults. |
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Rachel Caine’s Ink and Bone (Berkley, 2016), the first of the Great Library series, posits a world in which the powerful Library of Alexandria still exists – but in which personal ownership of books is forbidden. For teens and adults. |
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By Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char (Broadway Books, 2016) is an enthralling and out-of-the-ordinary fantasy, in which Carolyn and 11 other children have spent their lives studying in the strange infinite Library under the tutelage of an omnipotent being they know only as Father. Now Father has gone missing, and Carolyn and siblings are on their own. Strange and fascinating for teens and adults. |
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Genevieve Cogman’s The Invisible Library (Ace, 2016), the first of a series, posits a universe of alternative worlds, all linked by a central Library, whose Librarians attempt to gather books from all existing realities. In this, Irene and her Sherlock-Holmes-like student helper head out for a magical alternative London. Fantasy and thrills for booklovers. For teens and adults.
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In the 1994 film The Pagemaster, 10-year-old Richard fears practically everything and is obsessed with safety statistics. Caught in a thunderstorm, he stumbles into a peculiar library where he is transformed into a book illustration – and can only escape by navigating the library’s fiction section to find the exit. With the help of three anthropomorphic books – Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror – Richard deals with characters from classic literature, including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Long John Silver and his pirate band, a fire-breathing dragon, and a lot of hostile Lilliputians. He emerges a far braver boy. Rated G. |