The Library by Sarah Stewart

 The Library by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

Rating: 4.5 stars

The great Sarah Stewart has written a book to memorialize her late friend, fellow book lover and librarian Mary Elizabeth Brown.  What a great ode to a reader--to have a book written about her!

This is a simple tale about a girl who, above all else, chooses books.  The clever and funny illustrations by Stewart's husband, David Small, are top-notch.  We don't see the gal's face very often as it is usually hidden by a book.

Of her childhood (what flashlights are for!):

She always took a book to bed,
With a flashlight under the sheet.
She'd make a tent of covers
And read herself to sleep.

Of college life (um, I can relate):

Elizabeth Brown
Preferred a book
To going on a date.
While friends went out
And danced til dawn,
She stayed up reading late.

She eventually stumbles into a small town, and her reading habit takes over her house.  So she does what any good reader does: she shares her books.  She signs them over to her town, and her house becomes the town's library.  She moves in with a friend, and reads for the rest of her days.

This is a charming book--a great book for a child, but also a really good book to give to an adult reader, too.

The Quiet Place by Sarah Stewart

 The Quiet Place by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

Rating: 4.5 stars

Some of the best books help launch kids (of all sizes) into a different creative space.  They teach!  They show!  They inspire!  And, thanks to the great words of Sarah Stewart and the incredible drawings of David Small, The Quiet Place does all of that.

The story: Isabel moves with her mother and older brother from Mexico to America--to some unnamed northern state where it randomly snows in April.  Her mother bakes cakes for little girls' birthday parties, and Isabel gets to tag along.  Sometimes she is offered a piece of cake or goody bag, but she politely declines those and asks for boxes.  She collects boxes--the bigger,the better--and creates her "quiet place" from which she can write letters back home, read books, and just think, dream, be.  By the end, all the little girls in the neighborhood are invited to her birthday party, and they are wowed by the quiet place she's created.

"My quiet place was not quiet, but it didn't matter"

(Check it out in the picture--aren't you wowed, too?)

This book resonates with me for three reasons:

1. Lorelei has two little brothers who are like two puppies from the same litter.  While she can be loud and crazy, too, Ben and Kiefer are almost always loud and crazy.  So she often looks for a quiet place to read and finish an art project.  Her cardboard box house might need a padlock. Or two.
   
2. As an Army brat, my family moved around every 2 or 3 years.  My parents would set aside one room for boxes--for my sister and I to play with.  Just like Isabel, we would create elaborate tunnels that led to higher boxes, with windows and doors, all decorated with our favorite Crayola colors.  I particularly remember the one we created in the bright sunroom in our big brick rental at 25 East 52nd Street in Savannah.  (How I remember the address but not the words to my favorite songs is beyond me.)
   
3. The book is written through letters, from Isabel to her favorite Auntie Lupita back home in Mexico.  Letters are by far my favorite thing to write.  And I don't mean the electronic kind!  I spent a few years in Asia and while email was around then, letters were clearly superior.  I was lucky to have parents who wrote frequently and well, and there are boxes of letters in our houses from each other.  I love that this book shows kids another great reason to read--letters are out there to be written and read, shared and enjoyed.  Pen pals and grandparents, cousins and aunties...hopefully millions of letters will be penned by my trio over their hopefully long and happy lifespan (but soon not delivered on Saturday).

The Friend by Sarah Stewart

The Friend by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

Rating: 5 tear-jerker stars

Annabelle Bernadette Clementine Dodd is a little girl who seems too small for everything in her house.  Her home, a spectacular mansion, seems to swallow her up.  Next to her fancy-schmancy parents, whom we only see once as she kisses them good-bye minutes after she wakes, she seems unnoticeable.  And the big,wide ocean next to which and into which the story takes place engulfs her.

Since her parents are much too busy for her, they entrust her to Beatrice Smith, also known as Bea, the housekeeper/nanny...  These titles just don't begin to describe the relationship between tiny white girl and sturdy, strong, kind African American woman.  Each day has its own rhythm, with these two ladies dancing their part in a sweet relationship.

First day of the week, they'd wash all the clothes--
Hanging them out in the sun's fullest glow.
Belle would assemble large clothespin bouquets,
While Bea would respond in her singular way:
"Glory be, Lord knows you try, my child!
Now let those clothes just flap for a while." 

Then they'd walk to the beach for a swimming spree--
Belle and Bea, hand in hand, to the sea.

Turn the page to a wordless wonder of an illustration by the uber-talented David Small showing Belle and Bea holding hands in the surf, walking down the dozens of steps from the old mansion into the sparkling water.

Each day of the week is full of chores turned into games, from which they deviate to spend time by the sea.  Near the end, after we know that Belle and Bea are completely inseparable, Belle separates from her.  She decides to go to the beach alone.  With her big red ball.  That floats off in the water.  Belle first feels brave and confident when she paddles in after it, but...then a wave hits.

Back at home Bea realizes in a flash that her little shadow is missing and immediately runs to the sea.  And then into the sea, rescuing the drowning girl.  Bea pulls her out of the water and into her strong, loving embrace.  Grateful, frightened Belle clings to her.  Bea weeps with relief; she would have lost her world had something happened to her.

The book is written in tribute to the author's childhood nanny, and it is a beautiful, beautiful book--both prose and pictures, lessons and reflections.