The Library Card - Eileen Spinelli
A mysterious library card affects four lives.
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- Author:Eileen Spinelli
- # of pages: 148
- Publisher:Scholastic Inc.
- Original Publication Date: 11/14/2004
- Genre: Fiction - Short Stories
- Paperback: $4.99
- Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 9 up
- Read Aloud: 9+
- Read Alone: 9+
Parents need to know
Families can talk about the power of books, reading, libraries, and librarians and the affect they can have on even the most difficult lives. Have you ever read a book that changed the way you thought about your life? What about it spoke to you?
Message
Social Behavior:
Lots of bad behavior: shoplifting, vandalism, tagging, mooning, mouthing off to adults.
Consumerism:
Numerous candy brands mentioned.
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
A reference to a mother who died of a drug overdose.
Violence
A threat with a razor blade.
Sex
Language
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Amy Brotman
Brenda is a TV addict, and when her parents decide to participate in a week long Great TV Turn-Off, she is completely lost. When she finds the card she hangs on to it because its blue rectangle reminds her of the TV set. But when she sleepwalks her way to the library, she finds a letter addressed to her which guides her to her own biography. She is fascinated to read about her own early childhood, but the words abruptly end after the first time she turns on the TV, and the rest of the pages are blank. So she becomes maniacally determined to fill them
Sonseray is homeless, living in a car with his father. Though he appears hardened and is constantly in trouble, his mother's death from a drug overdose years ago has left a hole in his life that he just can't fill, no matter what he does. But Miss Storytime at the library has a surprise for him.
April's new life on the mushroom farm her parents bought is less than appealing. When she goes on a hike trying to escape the ever present smell of the horse manure that the mushrooms grow in, she connects up with a bookmobile that is being hijacked by a teenaged runaway.
Is it any good?
Jerry Spinelli has had a strange career. For a long time he was a competent toiler in the orchards of children's literature, producing a number of perfectly decent novels, nothing special or unusual, but enjoyable. Then, like a bolt from the blue, came Maniac Magee, a novel so far superior to anything else he had done that I had to wonder what profound change had come over him. It earned him a Newbery Medal and a place in the pantheon of truly great children's novels. I thought he had ascended to a new level of writing, and eagerly awaited his next. But when it came it was another of his perfectly respectable, not-going-to-set-the-world-on-fire novels. So it seemed that maybe he just had this one, truly great novel in him, and now that it was out, he could go back to being a mere mortal.
But wait. While The Library Card is not on the same level with Maniac Magee (maybe that's not really possible or fair to expect), it is far better than his ordinary books. Like Bruce Brooks' What Hearts, its structure is of four related novellas. What ties these stories together, however, is a mysterious blue library card that has a powerful impact on the life of whoever finds it. It leads its possessors to a library whose enigmatic librarian seems to know more about them than they know themselves.
Each story is a small gem, and each is an imaginative, off-beat, and often poignant reminder of the power of books and libraries, and the wisdom of librarians, who know that placing just the right book in a child's hands can change his life forever.
From the Book:
Mrs. Hill looked down at her son, on his back on the floor, eyes closed, a look on his face she could not recall ever seeing before. And a book in his hand. About tree-climbing fish she knew nothing, but she did know that if there were such a thing, it surely was not as rare as the sight of her youngest son holding a book.
Other choices
Other Books by Jerry Spinelli
Fourth Grade Rats
Maniac Magee
Wringer
Stargirl
Loser
Milkweed
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