Parents' Guide to

The Library Card

By Matt Berman, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

A mysterious library card affects four lives.

Book Jerry Spinelli Short Stories 2004
The Library Card Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Community Reviews

See all
age 9+

Based on 3 parent reviews

Christianmommy
Christianmommy Parent of 8-year-old
November 18, 2009
age 7+

Great handbook for delinquents!

Hated this. Angry it was given to my 3rd grader. For all of the questionable youth activity: Repeated Shoplifting and Vandalism, Defying all teacher, adult and parenting relationships, quitting/skipping school, cutting, hijacking and hitchhiking to name only a few! All with no real consequences... Poorly strung together, it is more of a handbook for delinquency than shining example of how books can save people. Forget about any sense of morals or authority figures helping troubled kids!
BnWsMom
BnWsMom Parent of 6 and 8-year-old
November 6, 2009
age 10+

Good book for middle grades

This book was so-so. Overall it has a positive message about the value of books/the library - however that positive message is only inferred so the reader must be mature enough to recognize it. This book also has some mature themes - it infers that one of the characters may be suicidal, a couple other characters shoplift and vandalize. Another character is homeless and lives in a car with his uncle. These dark themes tend to overshadow the positive message. Additionally, the imagery and figurative language used by the author is somewhat complex and the reader would need to have the maturity level to comprehend it.

This title has:

Great messages
See all 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Mongoose is a young teen who is being led down the road to serious delinquency by his best friend Weasel. From shoplifting to vandalism, their crimes are getting bigger, as are Weasel's plans to drop out and live on the streets. When they find the card Weasel tosses it away. But it keeps reappearing, and Mongoose finally steps into a library for the first time in his life to find out about a strange bug he encountered while spray painting a tree. When he hands the card to the librarian on the way in, she says, "No, this is not to let you in. It's to let a book out." The book she gives him is called "I Wonder," and it contains far more than just the bug he was looking for.

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?

Our review:
Parents say (3 ):
Kids say (4 ):

Each story here is a small gem, and each is an imaginative, offbeat, and often poignant reminder of the power of books and libraries. And, of course, of the wisdom of librarians, who know that placing just the right book in a child's hands can change his life forever.

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's 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.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • 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?

Book Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended book lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate