Palace of Books
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From beloved storyteller Patricia Polacco comes a picture book based on her childhood about how a very special librarian and town library made her life happier after moving to a new state in elementary school.
When young Patricia’s family moves to Battle Creek, Michigan, she finds it hard to believe this new place will ever feel like home. But soon she meets the kind librarian Mrs. Creavy and discovers the library’s doors are always open. Now, Patricia has a place to explore and study books about the birds that she loves. Mrs. Creavy even introduces her to the books of John James Audubon and helps Patricia introduce her classmates to the joy of birds by becoming the first member of the Audubon Bird Club of Freemont Elementary.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Polacco offers gratitude for her childhood public library in this earnest autobiographical picture book tribute. When a white-presenting first grader leaves the family farm for Battle Creek, Mich., she finds it's not easy being the new kid. But the artistic protagonist, a bird-lover who struggles to read, finds refuge within the local library's art books, among them the paintings of John James Audubon ("I had never seen anything more beautiful than this!"). With the help of an affectionate librarian, the child finds a way to share her love of birds with her classmates, mostly portrayed as pale-skinned, leading to the class receiving memberships to the Audubon bird club. In exuberant pencil, marker, and acrylic artwork, Polacco packs a lot of detail into this lengthy, nostalgic tale of a library as a kind of home. Ages 4–8.