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The Lost Library, by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass (2023)

Premise: A boy becomes fascinated with the mystery of his town‘s library, which burned down in 1999 under mysterious circumstances.

Review: This is a fun middle grade romp with a memorable set of characters, and a lovely father-son relationship. The problems come if you think about the plot or need a satisfying conclusion to the mystery
Cont.

This was my #BookSpin for this month. It was only OK. The writing sometimes felt a little off, but I'm not sure why.

My November #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin books look like the perfect cozy reads as I slow down for the month.

“The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.” -Albert Einstein

This was such a delight! A little free library, a guard cat, and a little boy trying to solve a mystery make for a sweet, compelling and thoughtful story. So many special gems inside like a Mary Oliver poem, talking mice, and I‘ll let you discover the rest. Highly recommend! #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

So sweet

This cute story about a town that lost its library to a fire is told by alternating narrators including a cat. There is a mystery to be solved, but also deals with guilt and regret with a happy ending. It's a gem of a book written by two MG masters!

Happy #middlegrademonday everyone!

~Comment below if you'd like to be tagged~

My pre-#Readathon bingo with 5 full rows. I knew completing the board wouldn't be possible, but I still did better than expected.

I requested this book from the library to read to the grandkids not realizing it was a chapter book. That won‘t hold their interest via Marco Polo. So…I‘m trying 2 new things today ~ Bookly and Children‘s Fiction.

A very cute middle grade mystery about a libraries and the love of reading and sharing knowledge. I enjoyed all of the characters here, but I have to say that this book needed more of Mortimer the orange cat and his smaller non-feline acquaintances, the mice. I do think a sequel is in order for a glimpse of the potentially fruitful (and artistic!) connection between cat and mouse 😺🐭

It was an extremely well written and wonderful story that I would highly recommend to anyone who loves books, adventure, mystery, and cats.

Finished earlier this week. A new middle grade novel with cats, mice, ghosts and a little free library! This was a really nice novel and mystery.

A library burned down years ago and they never rebuilt it. Evan is trying to figure out who was the one that burned it down.

#joyousjanuary

4 ⭐️s
I really enjoyed this little book! we follow 3 POVS: Mortimer the cat, Al the ghost, and Evan the 5th grader. each of these characters are grappling with their town‘s lack of a library. each of their distinct stories are engaging and I really enjoyed this read. it‘s nothing anything deep or ground-breaking, but it‘s cute and short and well-written and that in and of itself is a wonderful thing! 📚🐱✨

There are no villains in this story. There are; however, great characters, which include ghosts, mice, and a cat, and a wonderful library focused mystery. This would be a fantastic, gentle read aloud.

This was nostalgic and warm and melancholy all at the same time. It made me feel sad but also happy? Understated and simply written, this book seemed very different from Stead‘s previous books (which I love), almost like a fable. If I still taught middle school English or even elementary school I‘d want this in my classroom. 💗

This young-at-heart bookdragon was thoroughly delighted and captivated by this middle-grade mystery story. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#the-lost-library

Publication is expected August 29.

#NetGalley #MacmillanAudio #MacmillanYoungListeners #TheLostLibrary

Lily (age 7) says: “I love this! Especially the chapters with Al.” I also quite enjoyed the story! Maybe in life things don‘t always come together perfectly, but it is so satisfying when they do in a book. Wonderful! We listened to the audiobook and having multiple narrators was very helpful for the kiddos to distinguish characters. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and the Libro.fm ALC program for an early audio copy in exchange for an honest review!