Library Girl

by Polly Horvath Narrated by Rebecca Quinn Robertson

Overview

After living in the public library for the last eleven years, Essie must learn to adapt to a world that's not as perfect as the stories she's grown up with in this heartfelt middle grade novel from Newbery Honor author Polly Horvath.

Essie has grown up in the public library, raised in secret by the four librarians who found her abandoned as a baby in the children's department. With four mothers and miles of books to read, Essie has always been very happy living there.

But now that she is eleven, Essie longs for a little more freedom ... and maybe a friend her own age. She seems to get her wish when her moms let her go by herself to the mall. On her second trip there, she meets G.E., a mysterious boy who looks so much like her she can't help but think they may be twins. Maybe he was raised by four dads in the appliance section of the department store. Maybe his story is intertwined with hers, and their happy ending is as one big family. But as she gets to know G.E. better, she learns that nothing is as simple as it seems in her stories-not even her own past.

With her signature warmth and offbeat humor, Newbery Honor author Polly Horvath invites book lovers to sit back in their own library nooks and check out a whimsical adventure perfect for readers trying to find their place in the world.

“Fast paced, richly imaginative, and written with abundant humor. An engaging choice for reading aloud.”-Booklist

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"This whimsical story is rich with quirky, lovable characters, the warmth of found family and an unexpected twist."—The Washington Post

"A love letter to books and the dreamers who read them. Hand this charming story to precocious readers and fans of Matilda."—School Library Journal

"Horvath takes as much care with the characterizations of the four librarians as she does with Essie’s, and as always her storytelling abilities are top-notch."—The Horn Book

"[A] quirky tale."—Publishers Weekly
 
"A lovely daydream for readers."—Kirkus Reviews

"Give this one to a quiet kid who loves the throwbacks but wants one with a very slightly more modern perspective."—The Bulletin

"Fast paced, richly imaginative, and written with abundant humor. An engaging choice for reading aloud."—Booklist

Kirkus Reviews

2024-06-15
Four librarians secretly raise the baby they found one day in the children’s room of the Huffington, Indiana, town library.

The women are friends, all single and childless (though not by choice), and each is a little quirky. By the time Essie’s 11, she’s read a great deal about the world but experienced little. Meeting G.E., a boy who looks just like her, makes her dream of being part of a large family. The two plot: Essie’s four mothers could marry the four male department store employees who are G.E.’s dads. The real outcome turns out to be slightly more complicated. The adult characters are drawn with broad, slightly stereotypical strokes: fat, white Midwesterner Doris is a terrible cook, French Jeanne-Marie is “thin and spiky” but a romantic at heart, Black Taisha has incredible skin and “a lovely froth of black hair around her head like moss,” and black-haired Lucinda has “that kind of look” that makes people think of fortunetellers (likewise, Hernandez, one of G.E.’s dads, “makes great Mexican food,” in contrast to the “regular stuff” prepared by one of his white dads). Horvath doesn’t simplify her vocabulary or philosophical musings for her audience, tossing in, without translation, French phrases and a little Yiddish. The low-tech, late-20th-century, small-town setting offers a safe, well-staffed library: It’s a lovely daydream for readers who think that E.L. Konigsburg’s Claudia Kincaid had the right idea (but should have run away to a library instead of the Met).

Amusing.(Fiction. 9-12)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940193896487
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	04/29/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

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