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Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9781561453917
ISBN number: 1561453919
Label: Peachtree Publishing houses
Manufacturer: Peachtree Publishing houses
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 32
Printing Date: March 31, 2007
Publishing house: Peachtree Publishing houses
Age index: Ages 4-8
Sale Popularity Level: 35449
Studio: Peachtree Publishing houses
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
This humorous tale of a curious young boy and his single-minded quest for knowledge is a heartfelt and affectionate tribute to librarians everywhere.
Every day after school Melvin goes to the library. Everything has its place in the library and Melvin likes it that way. And his favorite people--Marge, Betty, and Leola-are always in their places, behind the reference desk.
When something interests Melvin, his librarian friends help him find lots and lots of books on the subject. When he collects creepy bugs in a jar, they help him identify, classify, and catalog the insects. When he is cast as the Enormous Eggplant in the school play, Betty reads aloud from Organic Gardening to help him find his motivation.
As the years pass, Melvin can always find the answers to his questions-and a lot of fun-in the library. Then one day he goes off to college to learn new things and read new book. Will he leave the library and his friends behind forever?
Readers will enjoy Brad Sneed's delightful illustrations that colorfully capture the fun-loving spirit of Carla Morris's story about the contagious enthusiasm of learning.
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Rated by buyers 
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Basic plot is a young child, whose parents are obviously neglecting him, goes to the library where three librarians help him with every interest and dilemma in his life as he grows up. With no love at home he forms a tight bond with his surrogate parents who take pride in his achievements.
This book probably has the biggest marketing budget of any library themed children's picture book I've ever come across. Any time you look up any library themed book on this site, this book appears in the promotion links on that item's page. I work in a council run public library so I always check out books set in libraries to see how my profession is portrayed. So with all the hype I had pretty high expectations for this book, but have to be honest, there's a lot better library fiction out there.
Carla Morris who according to the back cover is actually a librarian, making it even more suprising, doesn't really show an understanding of what a librarian does or how a library operates at all. This book is more a fantasy land dream of library employees, the Livingston Library seems to have pretty much no customers, yet has the budget to have three librarians sitting permanently at the information desk (we never see the other staff who do all the shelving, man the check out, check in books and do everything else but they'd have to be there) and an elaborately fitted out children's reading area (complete with castle, knight armour and massive seat (with books shelves underneath the seat making it pretty impractical for anyone to browse or get books if anyone was sitting there). Obviously these three librarians love this cushy situation as they stay in the exact same jobs over the fifteen year or so time period this book is set.
The most unrealistic part of this story is the fact that a young child is able to be dumped at a library every day. This may well have been possible back when we were kids (80s for me) but in this day and age rules about child safety are pretty clear. If a young child seems to be unattended you ask them where their parents are, if they're not there you contact them immediately (if the kid can't tell you contact details, they get handed over to the police who take them back home and have a nice long talk with parents). There's no way this story could happen today, at least not with Melvin's younger years.
I also found the "they couldn't help it, that's how librarians are" constant repetition a bit nauseating. The author paints librarians as greatest people in the world, all friendly and with time to spend the whole day helping one customer. Good book to teach kids about libraries and how they can help you, however if your library isn't actually this friendly or doesn't have the budget (as I would imagine is the case with every single public library in the world) to provide one on one service to this extent, it's probably not a great idea to be reading it to children and their parents in your own library. Unrealistic expectations of service that it is just not possible to provide unless you neglect every other customer in the library would therefore result in mass disappointment.
Nice drawings yes, but I wonder if Brad Sneed has ever set foot in a library as he draws the staff as pretty stereotypical librarian characters. Also has no understanding of workplace health and safety with illustrations such as the one with the snake enquiry showing a librarian grabbing a book from the shelf while leaning at a ridiculous angle on a portable step. Obviously she should have asked the librarian in pink who is at least three times her height to grab it for her. There is no way a real library would place items on the shelves this high where customers could not reach them.
The best three books I've come across that are set in a library are Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians by Jackie Hopkins, Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen and Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk. I'd grab one of those instead!
Rated by buyers 
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Books can change your world. They sure changed young Melvin's. But it's not just the books in the library that have such an impact on his life -- it's the librarians who guide him through his lifelong search for knowledge.
This wonderful novel for young readers takes kids through early childhood to adulthood, all with the library and librarians as a driving force in Melvin's life and career, culminating in his own contribution to another boy's life as a librarian, himself!
The illustrations bring the story to life, beautifully creating the world of libraries, comfortingly familiar to the readers who will love this book the most. The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians is a super book with immense charm to hook your own young reader on Melvin's fascinating world of books.
Rated by buyers -
My daughter (9) simply loved this book. Once we read the library copy she immediately asked to own it.
Rated by buyers -
Carla Morris, The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians (Peachtree, 2007)
I have to admit, I expected to like this book a whole lot better than I did. The subject matter seems almost tailor-made for me, a person who almost defines the term "book geek," and who many years spent more time at libraries than I did at home. It didn't work for me, though. I think much of the problem stems from the writing itself, which seems to lack the natural cadence and rhythm often found in childrens' books. Still, the subject matter is great, if you've got a bookworm at home; I'd suggest, however, pulling this one out of the library and giving it a good going-over before parting with your cash. ** ½
Rated by buyers -
I love this book. The illustrations are great! I read it to all my classes that I see in the library and they all loved it!
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