SUCH A LIBRARY!

An old Yiddish folktale is reset.

A spare retelling of a tale perhaps best known from Margot Zemach’s It Could Always Be Worse (1976), beloved by many storytellers, opens this book. In it, a shtetl dweller goes to the rabbi for advice about his noisy household but finally learns to appreciate the din. In this version, updated to a 21st-century library, young Stevie is trying to read in a quiet environment, away from his siblings. Alas, a storyteller interrupts his peace by intoning those special words, “Once upon a time.” Stevie complains about the ensuing “party,” which leads the librarian to open a book—out of which pop noisy partygoers. Stevie then complains that he is in a zoo, which prompts the librarian to open the book again, and out pops a noisy menagerie. Stevie next complains about the circus, which yields a noisy array of circus performers. Totally exasperated, Stevie yells at the librarian, who answers in her very best librarian voice, and all the creatures reenter the book, which she then hands to Stevie. With just the swishing of pages, the tapping of computer keys, and the storyteller’s voice—soft, now, by comparison to the chaos—Stevie has his peace and quiet. Stevie and the librarian are white, and other children are diversely represented. The illustrations are colorful and fill the pages to bursting with silliness.

Repetition, action verbs, and onomatopoeia make this a fun read-aloud.