A Taste for Literature: Library Books Are Not for Eating by Todd Tarpley

THE DAY MS. BRONTE CAME TO SCHOOL, STORY TIME WAS EXTRA COOL.

But she had this unfortunate habit....

COULDN'T BEAT IT....

ONCE SHE READ A BOOK, SHE'D EAT IT.

The class was aghast. They loved their books. They felt they had to repeat that library books are not to eat!

Librarian McSmartly envisioned her book stock shrinking. What was Ms. Bronte thinking? Ms. McSmartly had to preserve her collection! MS. Bronte vowed to end her greedy prediliction. But on her way out, she gobbled a booktruck full of fiction.

Ms. Bronte promised to change her diet. The Lunch Lady dished her up stew and cottage cheese. But that didn't seem to please Ms. Bronte, who scarfed up all the kitchen's recipes.

Maybe big Coach Burley can could her straight--and alter the choice of what she ate. But the coach was more concerned that his soccer field needed mowing, which seemed to set Ms. Bronte's juices flowing! But after she ate Burley's book of soccer plays, she vowed to change her ways.

IT'S NOT THAT I FIND BOOKS SO YUMMY! BUT NOTHING ELSE HERE FILLS MY TUMMY!

Coach Burley offered Ms. Bronte a deal.... Make his overgrown playing field her daily meal!

Author Todd Tarpley's latest school story, Library Books Are Not for Eating! (Doubleday, 2020), fits right on the menu with last year's hit gustatory yarn, We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins. (See my review here). Author Todd Tarpley is the past master of wordplay, rhymes, and comic plots, and Tom Booth's, er, tasteful illustrations make this one a humorous introduction for that first classroom lecture on library book care. Other hit books by Todd Tarpley are Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! Naughty Ninja Takes a Bath, Three Grumpy Trucks, and his classic, Ten Tiny Toes.