Library Books Are Not for Eating!

March 1, 2020
Kids are shocked by their new librarian's eating habits. "The day Ms. Bronte came to school, / story time was extra cool," warbles the collective narrator--except for one "small problem, / couldn't beat it. / Once she read a book... // SHE'D EAT IT!" Big, irregular die-cut chomps taken out of the cover and endpapers lead to cartoon illustrations featuring a frumpy, bespectacled long-necked dinosaur smilingly wolfing down stacks of generic library volumes. Ms. Bronte then goes on to the school's other stashes of books as students and grown-ups (diverse in skin color and facial features but all human) look on in wide-eyed dismay. Is it a love of books? Not at all, as Ms. Bronte explains as she packs up to leave: "It's not that I find books so yummy, / but nothing else here fills my tummy." Fortunately, she suddenly realizes that the school's overgrown soccer field, there all along but somehow going unnoticed, is in serious need of weeding...just the ticket for a hungry herbivore. This contrived twist combines with a vague moral about how books are for reading, not eating, to give Tarpley's addition to the annals of bibliophagy a tentative air--particularly next to more robustly comedic variations on the theme, like Franziska Biermann's The Fox Who Ate Books, translated by Shelley Tanaka (2016), or Emma Yarlett's Nibbles stories. Bland sauce: Others have dished up better. (Picture book. 5-7)

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May 1, 2020

PreS-Gr 2-This goofy romp combines such librarian-approved elements as dinosaurs, scads of books, and problem solving. Everyone loves Ms. Bronte at the school, but they wish she would stop eating the books! Nothing else seems to satisfy the bespectacled dinosaur's appetite, until she discovers the overgrown soccer field full of vegetation and puts a tasty end to both her own and the soccer coach's problems. The rhyming text scans well, though Tarpley sometimes prioritizes the meter over meaning: "We've got to rearrange your feeding./Library books are not for eating!" Booth creates playful and varied visuals, mixing up perspectives and pairing Ms. Bronte's long, swooping neck with diverse, round-faced kids-alternately agog and delighted by the librarian's transgressions. The exuberant digital illustrations and bouncy text propel readers through the tale and the repeated "Library books are NOT for eating!" will serve well in storytime. VERDICT Good fun for book-lovers, daffy dinosaur lovers, and those who enjoy a picture book in verse.-Robbin E. Friedman, Chappaqua Library, NY

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