LIBRARIAN ON THE ROOF!

A laughing new librarian with "eyelashes as long as bird feathers" arrives at the creaky, almost-100-year-old library in Lockhart, Texas, and, to her surprise, the children do not use it because they say it's for grown-ups! Though RoseAleta buys new books and magazines, makes sure the library is buzzing, even leads a Christmas parade through the town square with a sign ("Come to the library!"), the children do not visit. She decides to create a space just for them, but nobody will contribute to the $20,000 required for the new space. "We need more than a bake sale," she says, and without further ado, she decides to camp out on the library's roof until the money is raised. Her meals are delivered via the electric company's bucket, and she even weathers a storm in her little tent, but the town rallies and the money is raised. Energetic, if slickly unsubtle drawings match the text and take advantage of the rooftop perspective with two vertically oriented double-page spreads of RoseAleta ascending and descending. Based on a true story, this will be popular with librarians and their readers. (Picture book. 6-9)