We had mixed feelings about both of our September books, but did agree on some positive aspects of each one. We started with our picture book, If We Were Dogs by Sophie Blackall. We mostly agreed that although there were basically good feelings about the illustrations, the text was mostly pretty flat and not the greatest example of great picture book writing. It probably IS a great read-aloud for preschoolers though, as determined by the 3- and 5-year old granddaughters of one of our readers who (according to their grandma!) absolutely loved it, and wanted it read again. SO...perhaps that is the final evaluation, since that's the target audience for this type of book.
The discussion of our novel, Library Girl by Polly Horvath also didn't get raves from any of us. Almost everyone was put off by the premise that a newborn baby was left on a shelf in a library, and four single female children's librarians decided to take care of her, setting up a small room in their back office area, with a hot plate and a fridge, where she could 'live', with them, and taking turns on spending consecutive nights sleeping on the couch that was there. OK...One has to really suspend disbelief to even deal with the things that happen in this novel, as the little girl, Essie, lives on for eleven years (!!) in this situation, and is home-schooled with complete access to the entire library (which may not be such a bad thing!!). Essie experiences a series of strange events as she ventures out into the (nearby) world and finally discovers a twin brother and gets a wonderful new home where everyone involved can be a family. We felt the conclusion where nothing is really resolved but everyone lives happily ever after was less than satisfying. Most of the incidents that happen in this story, although they might seem real to some 9-12-year-old readers, felt totally lacking of credibility in the real world.
The discussions of both of our books really spoke to the issue of the reactions of children and young readers to books compared with those of a group of quite literate, grownup women who have had many years of a variety of experiences, some of whom also write children books.
