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.