MISS MALARKEY LEAVES NO READER BEHIND

Miss Malarkey, school librarian, has set a goal to have the school read 1,000 books before the end of the school year, and to find a book for each and every student to love. The principal will dye his hair purple and sleep on the roof if they succeed, so the effort is worth it, even when it means getting a crew of video-game aficionados to stick their nose in a book, including the narrator: “I hate reading. . . . I like video games, and so do my friends.” It’s not that he is predisposed to disliking books. He tries the scary books and the joke books and the adventure books Miss Malarkey gives him, but they are as sand to his eyes. He’s just honest. But Miss Malarkey is industrious and full of ideas—amply depicted by O’Malley’s warmly emotive artwork, which videophiles will relate to. She finally brings home the bacon with a title that is the narrator’s to know and readers to find out (though Finchler lends a hand with solid lists of titles, including one about finding books to love). (Picture book. 5-8)