Happy birthday to the American Library Association! The world’s oldest and largest library-related organization is turning 150 this year, and as I get ready to attend the ALA’s annual meeting—held June 25-30 in Chicago—I’m in a festive mood. To kick off the celebration, here are a few recent and forthcoming kids’ books that remind us why libraries are so special.
Who better to fete these institutions than children’s librarian Mychal Threets? Threets went viral in 2023 for TikTok videos extolling what he calls “library joy”; he’s now PBS’s resident librarian and the host of a Reading Rainbow reboot. With his debut picture book, I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy (Random House, Feb. 3), he continues to spread the good word. Lorraine Nam’s illustrations depict an inviting community space, while Threets’ upbeat text has the same welcoming tone as his videos: “You belong here just as you are. The library is always here for you. Today, tomorrow—anytime you’re ready for a library day!”
That’s a message kids can’t hear often enough. Rob Sanders’ A Family of Readers, illustrated by Gabbie Benda (Charlesbridge, Jan. 20), follows two parents and their children as they spend a day at the public library. As in Threets’ title, this building is a vibrant, bustling place (no sternly shushing librarians here): Performers act out a story for a group of exuberant toddlers; STEM-minded preteens hold a robot battle. Sharp-eyed readers will spot an overalls-clad child in the background, quietly looking on before finally picking up a book at day’s end. Here, young people have the freedom to enjoy the library on their own terms—perhaps the best part of this space.
Indeed, libraries are pure magic—something history’s most renowned illusionist knew well. In her picture-book biography Houdini’s Library: How Books Created the World’s Greatest Magician (Knopf, Feb. 17), Barb Rosenstock explains how a book by Jean Robert-Houdin on sleight of hand inspired young Erik Weisz to take up magic and adopt the stage name Harry Houdini. Books helped him cultivate his skills, and as his wealth and fame grew, so did his literary collection; he filled his Harlem brownstone with titles on magic and spiritualism. Accompanying Rosenstock’s narrative are Mar Delmar’s spellbinding three-dimensional dioramas, infused with movement and light. Houdini made headlines as an escape artist, but the books he adored take center stage here. Readers will emerge wowed by the power of libraries and literature to shape lives.
Julie Abe is another author well acquainted with the wonder of libraries. Her middle-grade fantasy novel The Magic Library of Waterfall Way (Bloomsbury, Aug. 25) follows a young orphan named Lyra Hunt, deemed “Extremely Unremarkable” in a world where everyone is assigned to a guild according to rank. None of them will take Lyra except the Guild of Scholars—and only if she recovers a crystal that disappeared from its library following a fire. Abe’s descriptions of the cavernous library are a book lover’s delight; she dubs the library a “beacon of knowledge” in a land dominated by propaganda—commentary as relevant to our world as to Lyra’s.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
