(2) K-3 Illustrated by Paola Escobar. As a bilingual assistant at Nueva York's public library in 1921, Pura Belpré retells the folk stories of her native Puerto Rico at storytimes and eventually writes them down for publication. Descriptive language moves between English and Spanish seamlessly. Both text and expressive, warm illustrations carry the metaphor of planting seeds, so that readers see the seeds of Belpré's stories bloom as the biographical details unfold. Also available in Spanish. Reading list. Bib.

Reviewer: Alicia K. Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Beatriz Vidal. This is a lightly fictionalized picture-book biography of Mexican author Sor (Sister) Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648–1695), then keeper of one of the largest libraries in the Americas. Watercolor and gouache illustrations lend a sunny, idyllic feel to Juana's Mexico. As the original Horn Book review noted, there's no formal bibliography, but Mora acknowledges the work of "the Sor Juanistas, scholars of Sor Juana." Appended with an author's note and glossary for interspersed Spanish words. Concurrently published with a new edition in Spanish: Una biblioteca para Juana.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2002; November, 2019

(4) 4-6 In 1905, when public library service in the U.S. was young, Mary Lemist Titcomb set out to serve all corners of Washington County, Maryland, by loading up a horse-drawn wagon and making the rounds. Glenn provides a basic biography of Titcomb and recounts the success of her invention. Many photographs and ephemera in a stylish scrapbook design lend interest to a rather dry text. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Amiko Hirao. Librarian Clara Breed was a hero to the Japanese American children in San Diego who were banished to internment camps during WWII: she sent books, postcards, soap, and other supplies to cheer them up. Hirao's colored-pencil illustrations and archival black-and-white photographs on the endpapers help contextualize Grady's moving story, which includes excerpts from the children's actual letters. Reading list, timelines. Bib.

Reviewer: Christina Dorr

(1) YA Translated by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites. The children in 1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau's "family camp" are kept busy so their parents can work more efficiently--or so the Nazis think; in fact, the prisoners are running a school. Even more extraordinary, the school has a librarian: fourteen-year-old Edita Adlerova (based on a real person), in charge of eight precious, forbidden books. Iturbe's remarkable account uses an immediate present tense to immerse readers in Dita's story. Bib.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2018

(3) 4-6 True Stories, Real People series. Each short, inspiring biography is divided into four or five chapters written in an objective, unpretentious manner. Quotation sources are fastidiously footnoted and listed in the back matter. Navigation is easy thanks to clean layouts and a simple color scheme (orange photo captions, navy call-out boxes). Great for school assignments and engaging enough for pleasure reading. Reading list. Glos., ind. Review covers the following True Stories, Real People titles: Alia Muhammad Baker, Aron Ralston, Malala Yousafzai, Abby Sunderland, and Bethany Hamilton.

Reviewer: Amy Seto Forrester

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Debby Atwell. This easygoing picture-book biography gives us a simple narrative of Anne Carroll Moore's Maine childhood and early love of books on through to her career at the New York Public Library. With sun-dappled acrylic paintings of, first, rural Maine and, later, triumphantly, the light-filled interiors of NYPL's new Children’s Room, the tone here is one of uncomplicated optimism, reflecting Moore's practical idealism. Bib.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2013

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Susan Condie Lamb. As a girl, Dorothy Thomas wanted to be "in charge of a fine brick building just like the one where she checked out books" in her Massachusetts hometown. Thomas instead finds her calling in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, driving a bookmobile and eventually overseeing a small-town library. Eye-pleasing pastel-hued illustrations picture the resourceful early-twentieth-century redhead toting books to her various patrons.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Stephen Gilpin. In 2000, Texas librarian RoseAleta Laurell climbed to her library's roof to raise awareness--and funds--to help rehab the building. Ultimately her attention-getting stunt was rewarded with money for a new children's room and many new patrons. Humorous dialogue conveys Ms. Laurell's larger-than-life personality. More photographs of the real deal would have been a nice addition, to tone down the cartoon-zany digitally colored illustrations.

Reviewer: Sarah Novogrodsky

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Lulu Delacre. A fictional girl introduces readers to the very real Pura Belpré, pioneer of services to Spanish-speakers at the New York Public Library in the 1930s. Like Belpré's story hours, the text is in both English and Spanish; the story has a worthy subject, but the telling is labored. Gently lined paintings bring tropical color to the frosty New York streets. Glos.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(2) K-3 Winter's picture book describes Alia Muhammad Baker's attempt to save her library's collection when war comes to the Iraqi city of Basra in 2003. The illustrations represent the terrors of war realistically but not graphically. This tale provides a good way to talk about war and demonstrates the quiet heroism of fighting for something important without using violence.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2005

(2) K-3 The action in Stamaty's black ink drawings is immediate and exciting as graphic-novel panels tell about the 2003 rescue of an Iraqi library's books in the midst of the war. A talking book character provides background and narrates the story, describing librarian Alia Baker as a "real-life superhero." Information about the history of libraries in the Middle East is appended.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2005

(4) 4-6 This well-rounded biography traces Laura Bush's journey from shy Texas schoolgirl to first lady of the United States. Her professional accomplishments as a teacher and librarian and her daily life as a wife and mother are related in competent, if occasionally cloying, prose. The volume includes an insert of color photos showing Bush with her family and at public events. Websites. Bib.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(3) 4-6 After an opening chapter on the New Deal and WPA programs, a lengthy second chapter (half the book) is a fictionalized account of one workday for a pack-horse librarian as she brings well-worn books and magazines to a mountain community. Subsequent chapters offer information about the program, and numerous archival photos add interest. Bib.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2001

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska. A snowstorm prevents Mary, the librarian who drives the bookmobile, from taking her niece Hannah home on Christmas Eve. The older vehicle can't get up the lane to Hannah's house, so Hannah and her aunt happily decide to spend the night in the bookmobile, sustained by many food gifts from their patrons. Acrylic illustrations thoughtfully convey the context of this warmly told, although somewhat contrived, story.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian