Member Review
Review by
Alice B, Reviewer
First of all, thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.
You can't imagine how cute I found this graphic novel to be.
Told in the form of emails, newspaper articles, letters and memos, "Don't Check Out This Book!" it's the story of the town of Appleton, Illinois. A town that over the years has lost inhabitants and students, finding itself with a population of just 83 souls - a town whose life focuses on apples between orchards and streets that have to do with apple desserts or apples in general.
A new librarian, Rita B. Danjerous, arrives in Appleton and thanks to her daughter May B as the twentieth student, the school avoids closing its doors. But there is no money, so Rita has to settle for a broom closet as a library, the principal does not even remember having hired her and, to be honest, it's his secretary Gladys Friday (I loved the pun! Sure, it took me a while to really get it, but it's not the point...) who keeps the school going.
Moreover, the new School Border President Ivana Beprawpa - and really, she was the only one who had run for it - is on a path war because May B doesn't want to buy the gloves sold in her shop and that she claims are part of the school uniform, but above all with her mother Rita: what are these books marked with a green dot that keep students awake past nine in the evening? All of this clearly represents an infringement of the rules.
But fifth-grade students May B and Sarah Bellum know that there's a difference between following the rules and respecting them and questioning them when these are not appropriate.
With the help of a journalist, a little cunning and the classic "following the money trail", Appleton will soon be shaken by a scandal so juicy that no one would have ever imagined how rotten the core of the whole affair was.
Did I mention that this graphic novel is full, but full of puns? I loved it.
I can't go into details because otherwise I would reveal too much - and the graphic novel is already short of his own.
However, I can tell you it's a good story - a story that teaches books can open your mind and stimulate curiosity (as if we bibliophiles didn't already know!), that rules are good but not when they are tyrannical and they threaten democracy.
One of the story's pregnant points are the books marked with the green dot: books that students can simply borrow by putting them in their backpacks and return them when they have read them, without necessarily registering them on the library card. This is because they are books that deal with topics that perhaps kids aren't ready yet to deal with parents and adults in general, topics that embarrass them and that they first want to explore for themselves.
It is a story that deals with the issue of censorship, represented in this case by the irritating Ivana Beprawpa - who wants to hunt and eliminate from Appleton everything that does not respect her dictatorial standards and everything that she thinks lacks in good taste, elegance and good manners.
It is a story that teaches to fight against bullying, gender stereotypes and toxic masculinity - because it's never too early to learn these things. Because Rita B. Danjerous is a librarian who promotes openness, curiosity, resourcefulness, freedom for females and males to have a voice and to be whoever they want.
Its only flaw is that I wanted to hear the students' voice and thoughts more and a little less of the irritating Ivana, but hey... there is a purpose for that, I realize it.
Maybe it's a graphic novel aimed primarily at children and middle graders, but I believe that adults can also rediscover the magic of the first time they set foot in a library and were enchanted by the amount of worlds available to them in a bunch of pages.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.
You can't imagine how cute I found this graphic novel to be.
Told in the form of emails, newspaper articles, letters and memos, "Don't Check Out This Book!" it's the story of the town of Appleton, Illinois. A town that over the years has lost inhabitants and students, finding itself with a population of just 83 souls - a town whose life focuses on apples between orchards and streets that have to do with apple desserts or apples in general.
A new librarian, Rita B. Danjerous, arrives in Appleton and thanks to her daughter May B as the twentieth student, the school avoids closing its doors. But there is no money, so Rita has to settle for a broom closet as a library, the principal does not even remember having hired her and, to be honest, it's his secretary Gladys Friday (I loved the pun! Sure, it took me a while to really get it, but it's not the point...) who keeps the school going.
Moreover, the new School Border President Ivana Beprawpa - and really, she was the only one who had run for it - is on a path war because May B doesn't want to buy the gloves sold in her shop and that she claims are part of the school uniform, but above all with her mother Rita: what are these books marked with a green dot that keep students awake past nine in the evening? All of this clearly represents an infringement of the rules.
But fifth-grade students May B and Sarah Bellum know that there's a difference between following the rules and respecting them and questioning them when these are not appropriate.
With the help of a journalist, a little cunning and the classic "following the money trail", Appleton will soon be shaken by a scandal so juicy that no one would have ever imagined how rotten the core of the whole affair was.
Did I mention that this graphic novel is full, but full of puns? I loved it.
I can't go into details because otherwise I would reveal too much - and the graphic novel is already short of his own.
However, I can tell you it's a good story - a story that teaches books can open your mind and stimulate curiosity (as if we bibliophiles didn't already know!), that rules are good but not when they are tyrannical and they threaten democracy.
One of the story's pregnant points are the books marked with the green dot: books that students can simply borrow by putting them in their backpacks and return them when they have read them, without necessarily registering them on the library card. This is because they are books that deal with topics that perhaps kids aren't ready yet to deal with parents and adults in general, topics that embarrass them and that they first want to explore for themselves.
It is a story that deals with the issue of censorship, represented in this case by the irritating Ivana Beprawpa - who wants to hunt and eliminate from Appleton everything that does not respect her dictatorial standards and everything that she thinks lacks in good taste, elegance and good manners.
It is a story that teaches to fight against bullying, gender stereotypes and toxic masculinity - because it's never too early to learn these things. Because Rita B. Danjerous is a librarian who promotes openness, curiosity, resourcefulness, freedom for females and males to have a voice and to be whoever they want.
Its only flaw is that I wanted to hear the students' voice and thoughts more and a little less of the irritating Ivana, but hey... there is a purpose for that, I realize it.
Maybe it's a graphic novel aimed primarily at children and middle graders, but I believe that adults can also rediscover the magic of the first time they set foot in a library and were enchanted by the amount of worlds available to them in a bunch of pages.
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
