Book Summary:
It’s the early 20th century, and cars are just beginning to
replace horses as the preferred mode of transportation. Life is changing across
the country as roads are paved, making way for these new-fangled automobiles.
Eleanor, known to her small town as Peewee, and her brother
Jake have lived alone in their small farmhouse since their parents passing.
Peewee prefers working with Jake repairing cars to wearing dresses and
attending tea parties, and she aims to stick around when she gets older and
help her brother run a car repair shop. She would much rather wear overalls
than dresses, much to the dismay of her older brother.
Then Peewee meets four strongly independent young women,
students at a nearby college who are pursuing their library degrees. Soon she
is learning that it is possible to be her own person while still being a girl.
When her brother is injured driving in a car race, does she have what it takes
to finish the race and prove to them all that a girl is just as capable?
APA Reference of Book:
Peck, R. (2006). Here lies the librarian. New York, NY: Dial
Books Publishing.
Impressions:
Here Lies the Librarian
is a quick historical fiction read. I really enjoyed Peewee’s thoughts and
comments on life as she grew into a strong young woman. She surprised herself
in how much she actually wanted to be ladylike when she was shown that she
could be both a woman and an independent thinker. Her interactions with the
four young ladies who came to run the library showed her that educating oneself
did not make a person stuck up and stuffy, but rather knowledgeable about life.
It better prepares a person to make the best life for themselves that they can.
As a librarian, I also enjoyed reading about the library
itself and how it was run. I’m not very familiar with this particular decade,
and the new inventions and changes that were taking place in this field were
coming in leaps and bounds. I really enjoyed the presentation of the new library
to the people who lived in this small town and the impact it had on the
community.
Professional Review:
Stubborn, fearless, and loyal, 14-year-old Peewee (Eleanor)
McGrath, who dresses like a boy, lives with her brother, Jake, in Indiana,
"way out in the weeds." Together, they run a struggling garage, where
Jake is building a racecar. It's 1914, and the electric self-starter has made
automobiles more accessible to women. One day, four female drivers, library
students all, arrive in a Stoddard-Dayton in need of repair; later, they return
to reopen the town library. With these young women as role models, Peewee comes
to realize that being female and being independent aren't mutually exclusive.
Peck's one-liners, colorful physical comedy, and country dialect, prominent in
most of his recent novels, are great as usual. And his characters, if not fully
developed, are wonderfully quirky. Yet even with some exciting scenes of
old-time dirt-track racing, the pace lags, and the story is choppy. Young fans
of Danica Patrick, today's "Queen of the Road," may want to read
this, but it will probably be librarians who'll have the most fun. Peck
recounts an incident in an endnote in which one of the characters appears at
the Indianapolis 500 with Janet Guthrie; unfortunately, there's not enough
explanation to know whether or not it's all true.
Zvirin, S. (2006, March). Here lies the librarian [Review of
the book Here lies the librarian by Richard
Peck]. Booklist, 102(13), 91.
Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Here-Lies-Librarian-Richard-Peck/dp/0142409081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446923800&sr=8-1&keywords=here+lies+the+librarian
Library Uses:
This would be a great book for a tween or younger teen book
club read. Discussions can be about historical setting, family relationships,
and gender roles. This book could also be part of a larger display/discussion
about gender roles and the changes that have occurred in the last century.
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