The Lost Library - Rebecca Stead - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Rebecca Stead

NARRATORS: Christopher Gebauer, Jennifer Blom, and Rob Dircks

GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction.

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A cute little mystery for middle-graders. The library setting and the presence of a friendly book-loving cat adds to the fun.

Story Synopsis:

A mysterious little free library appears overnight in the small town of Martinville. Fifth-grader Evan is mystified, but he takes two books from its shelves. He soon realises that there's something odd about the two titles, and he ropes in his best friend Rafe to help him in his "investigation".

The two boys soon discover that the books are connected to an event that took place two decades ago, but no adult is willing to talk to them about it. What's everybody hiding?

The story comes to us in the third person perspectives of Evan and Mortimer the kind-hearted cat who monitors the little free library among other things, and in the first person perspective of Al the ghost librarian.

(If your interest level didn't jump up at least five notches on reading about Mortimer and Al, you are too old for this book. 😛)

I had loved Rebecca Stead’s ‘The List of Things That Will Not Change’, and was hoping for a similar experience with my second attempt at her work. Alas, this book didn’t really match up, though it has its charm.

Bookish Yays:

😍 A big yay to kids’ books with a brave protagonist and a goofy best friend who always supports them. Evan and Rafe have a great mutually dependent friendship that works marvellously for this story.

😍 It’s always fun to have an animal in a book, but when this animal speaks to us, the going is even jollier. Mortimer’s perspective was entertaining as well as endearing. One of the many things I liked about his pov was how different humans would call him by different names because only he knew his actual name. Makes you wonder if your pet also has a name that you don’t know about!

😍 I liked the ghosts (Yes, ghosts… plural!) in the book as they don’t fit into any typical ghost mould.

😍 Al, whose name has a lovely secret attached to it, is a sweet and complicated character. I found her pov the best, though kids might not feel the same. Her character was the only one to be properly layered in personality.

😍 Everything connected to books and libraries was a treat to read, and we get this mainly because of Al, whose passion for books overflows from her words, and Evan, who uses books as his guide to solving the mystery. There are also some beautiful quotes connected to the habit of reading. I also loved the use of the ‘Little Free Library’ in the plot. This is the first book I have read incorporating the free library, and I hope we have many more.

😍 The small-town setting is also used to the story’s advantage, with accurate portrayals of both support and judgement that go hand in hand with the location.

😍 There are quite a few worthy themes in this book such as nervousness about starting middle school, the outcome of having overprotective parents, the pain of an orphan missing their parents, the helplessness you feel when people don’t believe you, and the importance of libraries. These offer plenty of material for potential discussions.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

😐 The start of the book was somewhat confusing, especially on audio. With three separate perspectives of a cat, a boy, and a ghost, and each talking about unrelated arcs, I couldn’t figure out how their tracks were interlinked. But soon the clues started popping up, and the story turned into a better reading experience, though not as great as I had expected.

Bookish Nays:

😟 Other than the three main characters and Rafe, we barely get to know anyone. There are quite a few interesting characters in the book, such as the librarian and Evan’s parents, so it would have been nice to get them more involved in the main proceedings.

😟 The adults seem to be keeping some big secrets, but most of these are quite easy to guess because of the abundant hints. There's only one exception, and a really good one at that. But I wish the book had made things more challenging for its readers. It’s aimed at middle-graders after all, not at a younger age group. As there are no red herrings at all, the main mystery also seems to get solved easily. While predictability is always a feature of children’s fiction, this one was a bit too straightforward.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 4 hrs 15 min, is narrated by Christopher Gebauer, Jennifer Blom, and Rob Dircks. I appreciate the decision to have a distinct narrator for each pov as this reduces the chance for confusion in kids' minds while listening. However, I didn't particularly enjoy the performance of the narrator voicing Evan. His voice didn't suit Evan's age or personality, and his voices for the other characters were distracting. The narrators voicing Mortimer and Al were really good.

All in all, this book takes some time to get going, but once it does, it should work for kids. This is not the kind of MG fiction that will click well for older MGs or even YAs/Adults readers because it is too simplistic.

Recommended only to the younger MG segment. Good for classroom discussions as well.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Lost Library”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.