About the Author

KATE BERNHEIMER is the author of the picture book The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Her most recent book for adults are Horse, Flower, Bird, a collection of stories, and The Complete Tales of Lucy Gold, the third novel in a fairy-tale trilogy. A fairy tale expert, she is the editor of My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me; Mirror, Mirror on the Wall- Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales; and Brothers and Beasts- An Anthology of Men in Fairy Tales. She is currently a professor of English at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. Visit her at KateBernheimer.com.

CHRIS SHEBAN is best-known for his luminous jacket art for Kate DiCamillo's acclaimed novel, Because of Winn Dixie. He is also the illustrator of many picture books, including Catching the Moon by the bestselling novelist of Bee Season, Myla Goldberg, and A Night on the Range by Aaron Frisch. He's been awarded three Gold and three Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators. Visit him at ChrisSheban.com.

Reviews

Pre S-Gr 2-This sweetly sentimental tale centers around a beloved library book ("It was green with a yellow ribbon inside to mark its pages"). As the years go by, it becomes tattered and loses a leaf, and fewer and fewer children check it out. A girl named Alice loves the book and takes it home, but when she forgets to renew it, it is relegated to storage in the library basement. At last it's time for the big book sale, and the book is reunited with the child and taken to its "always-and-forever home." Sheban's glowing watercolors perfectly capture the quietly magical hardwood-and-sunshine feel of a classic public library. This understated story will resonate with any child who knows that a book can become a dear friend.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.