Common Sense Media Review
By JK Sooja
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Chases, fighting in playful, creative book character romp.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In THE NIGHT LIBRARIAN, Page and Turner are excited to find out what their father's favorite book is worth. But when they take the book to the New York Public Library for help, something weird seems to be happening. It seems magic within the books is rumbling. It seems characters are wanting to escape from the pages into the real world. How can Page and Turner help save the day?
Is It Any Good?
There's a lot of fun in these pages, and the adventure starts off quickly. Best of all, the central mystery of The Night Librarian makes the first half a page turner. Perhaps not coincidentally, main characters Page and Turner are great leads, easy to root for, and believable as twin siblings. They have a natural dynamic, and through various challenges, they learn how to work effectively as a team, building off each other's ideas. Ms. Literati is also a great character, but so great that it feels like she isn't featured enough. Readers will want to know her background and who her ex-librarian friends who got fired were! It feels like there's a whole story there we don't get to know.
A lot of this book's creativity also has to do with its fun and cool engagement with existing storybook characters, creatures, monsters, heroes, and villains. Page and Turner even cleverly figure out a way to play some of these characters off one another in order to help solve a problem. While some readers might disagree with how some of these well-known characters are portrayed, most won't be able to deny that they are funny, fun to see out of their "natural environments" (the books and stories they come from), and fabulous to see interacting with characters from other books.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in middle grade graphic novels. Did any of the action or violence in The Night Librarian surprise you? Did the action help make the book more exciting?
How do characters show courage, perseverance, and teamwork? What kinds of things do Page and Turner do when confronted by a challenge? How do they support each other when things get difficult? How do they work together with book characters to accomplish their goals?
What book character that didn't appear here would you like to have seen make an appearance?
Do you think the book characters acted realistically? For example, if Alice from Alice in Wonderland popped out of a book into the real world, would she act like she does in this story?
Are you happy with the ending? Why, or why not?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Bonaia Rosado
- Genre : Graphic Novel
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic , Fairy Tales ) , Book Characters , Family Stories ( Siblings )
- Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Dial Books
- Publication date : July 30, 2024
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 256
- Available on : Paperback, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 18, 2025
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