February is
Library Lovers' Month - and just in time, because local libraries are once more struggling with budget shortfalls. While the governor's proposed 2014 - 2015 budget includes a small increase for education, it cuts library funding 5 percent. If this cut goes through, libraries will be funded at 20 percent less than they were in 2007. This cut hits libraries everywhere: schools, universities, and towns. If you love libraries, you can send the governor and state legislators a message to keep our libraries funded. Pick up some post cards down at the library and, if you're so inclined, write a letter to Governor Cuomo. You can even do it
online.
Then come on down to the library and check out some fun books with stories that take place in and around libraries.
A couple weeks ago I read a fun novel titled,
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. The protagonist, 12-year-old Kyle, loves games, and really wants a chance to be one of the first people to spend a night in the new town library - playing a new game designed by the famous Luigi Lemoncello. When the kids are locked in the library, they learn that the point of the game is to find a way out (not the door or windows or book return...) and Kyle realizes that sometimes you have to work with friends to solve puzzles.
We don't have this particular book on our shelves - you can request it through interlibrary loan - but we do have other books with stories set in libraries. One of my favorite picture books is
Bats at the Library by Brian Lies. One inky evening, a bunch of bored bats discover an open library window and fly inside. They play with the photocopier, have fun in the water fountain, and then discover the books.
The Library Dragon, by Carmen Deedy, features Miss Lotta Scales - a dragon who thinks her job is to protect the school's library books from the children. But then she realizes that books are meant to be read. She turns into Miss Lotty, a librarian who tells funny stories. Carmen Deedy wrote a second book,
The Return of the Library Dragon, in which Miss Lotty wants to retire. But when the new "media center" manager plans to replace all the books with computers, Miss Lotty takes a stand.
If you like the wacky humor of Judy Sierra, check out
Wild About Books. This is the story of a librarian who drives her bookmobile to the zoo by mistake...
Older readers will enjoy
The Library Card, by Jerry Spinelli. Telling stories from four different points of view, he shows how some young people are changed by their encounters with books.
In Meg Mackintosh and the Mystery in the Locked Library (by Lucinda Landon), Meg investigates the theft of a rare book from a locked library. There are plenty of clues for readers who want to solve the mystery before Meg does.
While not set in a library,
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke features a heroine who is a librarian. In this book 12-year-old Maggie discovers that her father can "read" fictional characters to life. Adventure ensues when one of those characters kidnaps her father.
There's a great book for adults, too:
Dewey: a Small-Town Library Cat who Touched the World, by Vicki Myron. When only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, Dewey was stuffed into the book return slot at the Spencer, Iowa, Public Library. This books tells how one small cat won the hearts of everyone who visited the library.
There are plenty more great stories about Library lions, mice, dinosaurs and more - you can find them in the online catalog and, with a click of the mouse, have them sent to Candor where you can pick them up to read.
