"Meet the Author!": Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk

Lucky Sam is a library mouse, with a home in a hole in the wall behind the Children's Reference section of the library. Naturally, Sam is quite well read:

Every night the library belonged to Sam.

And every night Sam read and he read and he read--picture books and chapter books! He read biographies and poetry, cookbooks and sports books, fairy tales and ghost stories and monsters by the dozen.

Eventually, Sam begins to get the urge to write his own book. "Write what you know," he reads in books about authors, so Sam's first book is titled Squeek! A Mouse's Life, illustrated with self portraits for which Sam posed in front of his little mirror.

Under cover of darkness, Sam sneaks the his mouse-sized autobiography into the Biography section, along with The Big Fall by Egmont Shellton and Super Hippo by Hippy Ottamus), where the next afternoon a surprised little girl comes across it and shows it to Ms. Forrester, the librarian. Both of them are intrigued and impressed with the little tome. Inspired by his success, Sam soon follows up his first book with The Lonely Cheese and The Mystery of Mouse Mansion.

As each little book is located by a different boy or girl, the story of the mysterious self-publishing author spreads through the library. "Who is this Sam?" everyone asks. Then Mrs. Forrester gets an idea. She posts a note for Sam on the bulletin board, inviting him to the library's "Meet The Author" celebration so that all his fans can ask him questions about how he writes his books.

Sam is flattered but nervous. A room full of excited kids seems no place for a shy mouse, but he really wants to share his joy in writing with his fans. Sam comes up with an idea and pulls an all-nighter preparing for the next day's event:

All night long he wrote and drew and snipped and folded and stapled little rectangles of paper into mouse-sized books.

The next morning the librarian and children follow Sam's signs into the conference room where they find an intriguing sight. On the table there is an empty tissue box with a small banner which says "MEET THE AUTHOR." with an arrow pointing downward toward the opening in the box. A little girl follows the directions:

"Oh," she said in surprise, for at the bottom of the box lay Sam's little mirror and the little girl saw her own face smiling up at her. "Me?" she said. "An author?"

Next to the mirror was a stack of tiny blank books and a pile of pencils that Sam had sharpened with his little teeth.

As a happy Sam watches from his hiding place, the children soon sit down and begin to write and illustrate their own little books, finding out, as did Sam, that writing can be a lot of fun.

Library Mouse is an engaging way to introduce classroom units on libraries, authors, or books in general. Kirk's illustrations of Sam's mouse-sized home and his clever pictures of Sam shelving his own creations in correct shelf order will appeal to kids and librarians alike, and this book should become a staple for annual use during American Library Week or Children's Book Week.

Pair this one with Michelle Knudsen's Library Lion (reviewed here September 2, 2007), Carla Morris' The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians, or James Daugherty's Caldecott classic, Andy and the Lion (Picture Puffins).

Super Reader: Born to Read by Judy Sierra

As a new baby in the town of Sunny Skies first begins to look around his room, his eyes fall on some letters at the head of his crib:

"That's ME!" he thought.

"My name is SAM!
I'm born to read. I know I am!"

Sam flashed his mom a hopeful look.
She opened up a picture book.
Then another. Then another. Then another!
Such a perfect patient mother.

Surrounded by preschool classics, such as The Cat in the Hat The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book), Sam soon begins to cut his teeth on bigger and bigger books and becomes the Reading Star of Sunny Skies. When he decides to branch out to become a cycle racer, naturally he turns first to the library for advice:

Sam read books on motivation, concentration,
Muscle action, getting traction,
Good nutrition, grand ambition,
Playing fair and bike repair.

Sam cruises to an easy win, stopping to repair a sprocket problem along the way, to the amazement of the other riders and the crowd.

"Here's my secret," Sam decreed.
"Readers win and winners read."

Then the skies over Sunny Skies are dimmed by the approach of a baby giant, Grundaloon, who brings havoc on the town playground, ripping up teddy bears and dolls right and left. Grownups are too frightened to send this unhappy camper to time-out, but Sam knows just what to do. Loading his basket with snacks and books, he trudges along, following the giant's tracks in the snow until he finds him about to toss the town's toys off a cliff.

"Fee, fie, fo, fum," the giant said.
"I'll grind your bones to make my bread."

"No, No," said Sam. "Have cake instead.
Let's read about a silly cat,
A caterpillar getting fat,
An alphabet that climbs a tree,
A friendly aardvark from TV."

What baby giant can resist listening to an Arthur Adventure or two? Soon Sam has rescued the town's toys and handed off Grundaloon to his mother, who has been searching for her wayward son. Sam is the whole town's hero.

Everyone began to sing.
"READERS CAN DO ANYTHING!"

Following up on their award-winning Wild About Books (Irma S and James H Black Honor for Excellence in Children's Literature (Awards)) rhyme master Judy Sierra and Arthur's creator Marc Brown team up again to promote reading power in their brand-new Born to Read.

It's no accident that Marc Brown made Arthur's last name "Read" and his favorite librarian "Paige Turner." With all the distractions of modern life, reading needs its cheerleaders and cheers--cheers like, say, "Readers win and winners read!"