“The Midnight Library”
By Kazuno Kohara; Roaring Brook Press, unpaged
For those of you who are regular readers of Check It Out, you might be expecting today’s column to be all about the 400s — the next call number area for review in my “Wonderful World of Dewey” series. There’s some good stuff located in the 400s, so I certainly want to share with you, dear reader, the treasures that are shelved there. However, this week I must take a temporary detour from the Dewey journey because one of my favorite days of the year is just about to rise from the pumpkin patch. That’s right — Halloween! And in my opinion, one of the best parts about getting ready for jack-o’-lanterns and trick-or-treaters is reading Halloween picture books.
Since Allhallow’s Eve is not that far away, books about pumpkins, black cats and goblins might be hard to scare up at the library. We have a wonderful selection of children’s Halloween books, but they’re very popular right now (no surprise there). So, I would like to recommend a title that, while not about Halloween, has the look and feel of a story set during the pumpkin days of October.
“The Midnight Library” by Kazuno Kohara opens with these lines: “Once there was a library that opened only at night. A little librarian worked there with her three assistant owls.” A night-time library staffed with three assistant owls? How owl-some! Sounds like a perfect read for little ones as our very own trees “deck out” in gold and orange, the skies turn gray and local owls hoot to each other during the longer, cooler nights.
As it turns out, this nocturnal library serves a very special clientele — animals who love to read! Rabbits, cats and dogs peruse the shelves while the little librarian, sitting in the storytelling corner, reads a story to a teary-eyed wolf. The tears turn to smiles when Miss Wolf discovers — with the gentle librarian’s help — that the sad parts of the soon lead to a very happy ending.
