This book is advertised as nonfiction, but it's heavily speculative. A lot of the events in this book are imagined, as well as the dialogue, but the core of the history is still valid. Billy Franklin was a real person, and Benjamin Franklin did start a lending library. The rest felt like a way to incorporate quotes from "Poor Richard's Almanack." As a result, the book just didn't flow very well for me. If it had just been a book about Billy, or just been a book about the lending library, or just been a book about Poor Richard's Almanack, it may have worked a little better for me.

Here's my breakdown:
Structure/formatting: 3.5/5
Thoroughness of research: 3/5
Storytelling: 2.5/5
Enjoyment: 3.5/5
Prior Knowledge Needed: 5/5 (5 meaning no prior knowledge needed, 1 meaning you need to be an expert in the material before reading)

The Leather Apron Club by Jane Yolen is an interesting fictional account about the beginning of libraries. The Leather Apron Club tells a story about how Benjamin Franklin introduces his son, Billy, to the love of reading and what would become a library as we know it today. This is a nice story and I believe others will like it, Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read this book. (This review is also on GoodReads.)

In this picture book for older readers told in first person, Benjamin Franklin’s 8-year-old son Billy describes work in his father’s print shop. This fictionalized version of a true story roots itself in Billy’s relationship with a tutor who inspires him to learn to love reading and literature. The text is lively, containing many of Franklin’s famous sayings, and uses unusual capitalizations throughout. The story describes Franklin’s first lending library (the club of the title), and how it inspired many of the leaders of that time period. Minor’s full-color pencil-and-watercolor illustrations depict the era with distinction. The book ends with author notes on related historical facts, such as Franklin’s anti-slavery work. Fifth grade classes studying Colonial American history will find this interesting.

THE LEATHER APRON CLUB, geared to readers 7-10 years, is a beautifully illustrated story about Founding Father Ben Franklin, his son Billy, and the first successful lending library in America — started by Ben in Philadelphia in 1727. A lovely hist fic picture book, it introduces young readers to the Franklin family, life during the pre-Revolutionary War era, and some of Ben’s famous aphorisms from Poor Richard's Almanack.

In reality, it’s not clear if Billy ever visited the library. But his father indeed founded it, with a lasting impact on literacy and education in America. An important addition to any school, public and private library.

5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 28 Sep 2021
#TheLeatherApronClub #NetGalley

Thanks to the author, Charlesbridge, and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

This is a fun introduction to Benjamin Franklin’s library in Philadelphia, while historical fiction - as its noted we don’t know if William visited the library - it’s accompanied with Yolen’s lovely illustrations and historical notes on the various individuals and topics to provide further information on Franklin, his son, and his library.

An excellent historical picture book.

A nice and informative glimpse into a specific point in United States history. Billy, the son of Benjamin Franklin, would rather spend his days out around town with his friend than be stuck inside forced to learn. But after his father hires him a tutor, Billy starts to understand the lure of literature, and goes with his father to the Leather Apron Club, a place for books and deep thoughts. The story is simple, but the information it gives on the daily life of Benjamin Franklin and children pre-Revolutionary War is very interesting. Having the story written in the same way grammar was used back then, with Important words Capitalized, was a nice touch. This would be a good book to incorporate into a read-aloud for children when learning about the founding fathers.

The only problem with this book, despite that I love most everything that Jane Yolen writes, is that, as she points out, we don't know all that much about Billy's childhood, so this is all conjuncture, as a way of bringing us into the world of the Leather Apron Club.

The leather apron club was the first lending library. Not the first free lending library, as one had to pay to become a member, but the first lending library in what would become the United States.

And while this is all very well and good, this is all conjuncture about what Billy thought about it. The author writes, in the end of the book, that Billy actually was a tory loyalist, and ended up having to go live in England, because he supported the crown.

So, this is an odd story about what things might have been like, but that there is no information about.

And because this was all about something made up, there didn't seem to be a point, then to introduce the fact that the lending library existed.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Charlesbridge Publishers for the opportunity to read and review this picture book.

Jane Yolen is one of my favorite authors of children's literature. I read the book several times and enjoyed it more at each reading. As I read, I caught an inkling of the life of Benjamin Franklin, his family, the city of Philadelphia in 1739, and the Leather Apron Club, America's first library.

First of all, I recommend that the reader peruse pages 32, 33, and 34 before beginning the book. The pages describe Franklin's son Billy, the Leather Apron Club, Franklin's opinions on slavery, Poor Richard's Almanac, and the bibliography. This will refresh recollections and help to better comprehend the story.

Billy is an active 8 year old, berated by a stepmother and adored by his father Ben Franklin. Billy prefers to play with his cousin James, and is not thrilled when sent to be tutored. However, he is captivated by Homer's The Odyssey and begins to devour books. Ben Franklin then introduces him to the library he created, The Leather Apron Club.

The illustrations by Wendell Minor are fantastic and full of heart. When gazing at these illustrations, I really get a sense of who Billy was and how much he loved reading. They enrich the book.

This picture book will produce conversations about the role of Benjamin Franklin in American history, Greek classics, the wise sayings of Franklin, and the daily life of children in colonial America. I highly recommend it.

Well, despite the subtitle here I have to say the middle of the three subjects gets by far the greatest attention. We get told that Franklin senior is a printer, married to a bossy wife, and fond of quoting the best lines from his very popular almanac. We don't really learn much about the Leather Apron Club, only that just when junior thinks his days of freedom are being put paid to by a tutor, he finds a love for books, and the Club feeds that love. In the end this might serve as a notice of thanks to the Club for being the first free circulating library in the USA, birthed as it was by a dozen upstanding benefactors when the country was much younger, but it remains in its first-person narrative more about the kid. And while he may be someone American children are supposed to know about, I don't see interest in him specifically from schoolchildren elsewhere. From the British point of view, then, three stars, despite there being little wrong with this all told.