  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 08/01/2005 Gr 3-5-Ruurs visits 13 countries and explores the manner in which librarians provide services to patrons using everything from boats and wheelbarrows to elephants. Many of the full-color photographs were actually taken by the librarians themselves. A boxed section also provides a map and basic facts about the featured country. While this is an attractive browsing item, the amount of text on each page and the textbook style of writing may discourage students from reading it cover to cover. However, with little information available about libraries of the world, this title offers a glimpse into the world of books, which several countries consider as "important as air or water." This might be an interesting revelation to many students who consider reading a laborious task and to those who take an abundance of books very much for granted.-Anne L. Tormohlen, Deerfield Elementary School, Lawrence, KS Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2005 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2005 In the spirit of Appelt’s Down Cut Shin Creek (BCCB 10/01), Ruurs has gathered thirteen accounts of unusual mobile libraries throughout the world. Inspired by a newspaper article about a camel library in Kenya, Ruurs began researching and writing letters to learn more about “how far people would go to put books into the hands of young readers.” The anthology is full of the surprising accounts she gathered, from the beachside wheelbarrow libraries at a British resort and the solar-powered semis in eastern Australia to the menagerie of animals employed by librarians (camels, horses, donkeys, elephants) worldwide and the floating libraries of Finland and Indonesia. Each account has a two-page spread of information, a few carefully selected color photographs, and a text box of factual info about the country under discussion. The easygoing and accessible narrative would work well as either a readaloud or as a text for independent readers; while there isn’t a tremendous amount of information, what is included is well organized and engaging, boasting a nice variety of anecdotes. Librarians could make a storytime just out of this text or else pair it with other themed anthologies of daily life details from around the world (Hollyer’s Let’s Eat, Kindersley’s Children Just Like Me) for a cross-cultural comparison. A map, author’s introduction, list of acknowledgments, and list of references are included. - Copyright 2005 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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