What. a cute book! The art was wonderful, the story was adorable and I love how it all came full circle. Who wouldn't want to build their own library!? This book is for all the book-lovers and their book-loving kids!

✨Review✨ So You Want to Build a Library by Lindsay Leslie
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📚Story
The story is about creating a perfect library. A library that has dragons, ice cream stands with unlimited scoops, bathtubs for reading and more of course!
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📚Art
The art in this book is very colorful and simple. It is very much an illustrated style made for kids. Kids will really like the variety of colors used.
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📚Age
This book would be great for kids ages 4 and up. I think that kids younger than this would still enjoy the pictures but I don’t think their attention span would last through the entire book.
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📚General
I like how it makes reading seem like such a fun activity for your imagination. By using the second person it makes the reader feel like the book lover rather than the character in the books, which could be great for kids who don’t see themselves as readers yet. I also like how in the world the book takes place there are lots of fantastical creatures like fairies and dragons. I think that was a fun addition and it makes the story more fun.
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Also, the book is very inclusive in its writing style. It uses pronouns he, she and them when referencing who the books in the library are for. This was a great added touch.
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This book will be published August 1st.
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Thank you so much to Netgalley and Capstone Publishing for this e-arc. All opinions are my own.

This was beautiful and gives children the opportunity to think and talk about what types of books and things they’d like to have in their own libraries.

This picture book takes children on an imaginative adventure of building a library and all the possibilities that holds. It is a fantastical and fun tale.

I had high hopes for this book. It sounded amazing. While it didn’t live up to it, I believe the concept is great. The point I’d hope is to get children thinking about what they would do if they build a library. Children loving books enough to want to is great. So if this book helps children feel closer to books then it has my vote.

I suggest having your children think about what they would do if they could build their own library. Perhaps have them draw a picture or paint one. Have them tell you their creative library as a story or to actually write it out on paper. Another great idea would be to record their story with your phone or a camera so that one day they can look back and see their amazing thoughts.

Let me know the wonderful things your children’s imaginations come up with or your own ideas on your ideal library.

So You Want To Build A Library? Author Lindsay Leslie offers up possibly the coolest library ever, I know my daughter for sure would want to visit a library with a playground, ladders, a waterslide, a trampoline, and a bunch of other cool features. Not to mention some cool mythical storybook friends for company!

Ahhhhhh.... like to build a dream library of your very own? What kind of library would you create? This book is all about an imaginative library one little girl builds with the help of her friends. A million stories high? Noooo problem. The sky is the limit when you have a giant friend to help out. Her magical home for books is filled with floofy chairs, gigantic water slides, tall ladders, a bathtub, trained dragons, an unlimited ice cream bar and teeny, tiny nooks for fairies to curl up and read their favourite stories.

The illustrations make the text almost animated. They are colourful, fun, engaging and busy. This book would be a great conversation starter as to what your child would include in their library if they created one. The book celebrates the love of libraries and of reading. I highly recommend it.

This is cute and I loved how it perpetuates the idea for young children to enjoy reading and to have fun with books and the stories they are reading or have read. The illustrations are cute and the colors are so vibrant and appealing to look at as well.

This is a wonderful book that children will want to read over and over again. The story is fun and the illustrations are perfect. I love anything to do with a library and I will definitely be buying this for my grandsons.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC of this book.
Read and reviewed by seven-year-old Amy.

‘So You Want to Build a Library’ is a picture book about how to build a library. It would be best if you had millions of people to help build a library. You can have giants, regular friends—every one—to help you create a library. Is the library perfect at the end? Read this funny picture book to find out!
This book's theme is teamwork.
This is a very small but fun book to read.
I give this book 5/5 stars as I loved how everyone helped build a library, and I love libraries.

So You Want To Build a Library by Lindsay Leslie is a cute, short picture book for children. With adorable illustrations and creative library features throughout, young children will adore this book. It was a cute concept and a fun read. It was extremely short and my son would have liked a bit more to the story. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

This is adorable. Engaging for young readers with bright pictures and colorful words, and only adding to the little reader's love of reading and adventure. I loved going on this library-building journey, and I know my kids will, too!

A cheery book with appealing and bright illustrations. Perfect for anyone who likes books! Thank you for the opportunity to review, Netgalley and publisher.

Really cute book with nice illustrations. I really like the rhyming verse about the fairies, would be really cute if there were a few more rhyming verses.

I was super excited for this book because obliviously it's about building a library. It was cute and I like the use of imagination but I feel like there could have been a better title.

Really cute story about a little girl building her dream library. The illustrations were exactly my type- very whimsical and colorful. I love the emphasis on the importance of reading and loving stories!

A lovely book for children to enjoy, revealing the wonder and delight of being able to visit a library. Also explores their imagination to see what they would include, from teeny tiny fairies to giants, and from bathtubs to trampolines. A library should be full of books, but full of fun too. Lovely illustrations and lots for the children to find in the pictures too.

This was such a sweet book! Who wouldn't love their own library? I especially loved ice cream sundae bar! As a children's librarian, I am excited to share this title with my students. I work with an age group that loves reading and will be able to relate to this fun book! I look forward to asking my kiddos what they would put in their libraries!

Received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely adorable book about creating an original library with so much fun stuff! I really love the artwork and its style, the colors also help it pop. All the fairytale characters were sweet and loveable. A great book promoting imagination and libraries!

My Thoughts
I know I would enjoy working in a library. I’ve done it before actually! I used to work in the library at my university (work-study job) and I loved it! I’ve often thought of volunteering or working in a library after I retire. This book makes me want to build my own whimsical library now!! Here are my pros and cons for So You Want to Build a Library:

Pros

1. The illustrations by Aviel Basil are vivid and exciting! You will see sloths in roller skates, princess cowpokes, astronaut soccer players, cartwheeling giraffes, and one very creative and exciting library!

2. The child in this book wants to build a library. She knows she needs building materials, help from her friends, and lots and lots of books. I love that there are questions in the story to engage the reader, such as where should the library be built, what kind of books should be in the library, should there be a bathtub, should there be a playground, and more! I think it would be fun to read this book out loud with a young reader and have them answer the questions as the book progresses.

3. I love that this book encourages and celebrates reading and makes libraries seem like magical places! Because they are!

Cons
None.

Summary
I spent a lot of time in our small local library when I was growing up. I didn’t live too far from the library so I would ride my bike there sometimes, or else my mom would just drop me off there. I could spend HOURS in the library – browsing, reading, dreaming. My library card was one of my most prized possessions! So, I love that books like this exist so a whole new generation of kids can learn that libraries are actually fantastical and magical places to spend some time!

Written for reading ages 4 to 7 (grade level 1 to 2).

Thank you NetGalley and Capstone Editions for providing an ebook, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Rating: 4/5 stars.

“So You Want to Build a Library” is a short but sweet fiction book for young children to enjoy with the help of a parent or older reader. The art style is simple but cute and fits the story well. I loved the diversity in the illustrations. The story is a bit silly and nonsensical, but perfect for children to enjoy. It explores the idea that the only limit to what we can do is our own imagination. I even learned a new word, cowpoke, that I had never heard of before! I only wish the book had also mentioned services that real libraries have available, not just imaginary ones. I would recommend this book to young children who are already book lovers.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book on NetGalley and have provided an honest review.*