Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass, The lost library, Text Publishing, October 2023, 224 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922790477
In the small town of Martinville, a free library appears overnight guarded by a large orange cat. Eleven-year-old Evan takes two books and notices that the return date on the library check-out cards is the same date the Martinsville Library burnt down. It was never rebuilt.
Evan and his best friend Rafe start investigating the coincidence but the adults they ask are reluctant to tell them anything. Told in alternating chapters by Evan, the large orange cat and a ghost librarian named Al, the mystery slowly unravels and the story from the past begins to reveal itself.
This is a delightful read about the importance of books, libraries and how they can heal and bring people together, sometimes in the most unexpected ways.
Reviewed by Deborah Abela
