The Not So Quiet Library’’
By Zachariah OHora, Dial, $17.99, ages 3-5
I shouldn’t have been so surprised by the crafty charms of “The Not So Quiet Library.’’ The unlikely hero of Zachariah OHora’s 2015 book, “My Cousin Momo’’ — a dorky flying squirrel in sweatbands — made me cry. “The Not So Quiet Library,’’ a placid story that morphs into a creature feature, is just as sly and weird.
The book begins, ordinarily enough, with a comforting weekend routine. Every Saturday morning Oskar and Theodore go with their dad to buy doughnuts to prepare them for a “day of quiet exploration’’ at the library.
The bakery is a midcentury design delight. The curved glass case spreads across two pages and contains all kinds of frosted and sprinkled treats. Pink stools with turquoise piping match the uniform of the woman in the Peter Pan collar behind the counter. Even the napkin and tape dispensers have a nostalgic vibe.
Both brothers pick doughnuts with toppings, though the boys are more different than alike. Oskar is a boy and Theodore (Teddy?) is a bear. This is not the weird part.
Their next stop is the library, where the display of books rivals the array of treats from the bakery. You can read some of the spines on the end pages: “UFOs 1952-1982,’’ “Life,’’ and “Snoopy’’ are a few selections from the massive shelves. Just as Oskar and Theodore settle into beanbag chairs with their choices (“Sea Lion’’ and “36 Chambers,’’ respectively), “BOOM! CRASH! GROWL!’’ they are interrupted by an angry, green, scaly, five-headed monster. This is the weird part.
The toothy giant hates books, but isn’t a critic. It is hungry and the books taste awful. It tries whipped cream and hot sauce and sprinkles (“they just bounced off’’), but nothing helps flavor the pulp.
“Actually, books are for reading,’’ Oskar tells it. But the monster is hangry and is in no mood for stories. The same heavy black lines OHora uses for adorable haircuts also make terrifying monster eyebrows. Its gaping mouths manage to be both silly and scary.
It takes a librarian to quiet the beast. Story time listeners, even monstrous ones, need to sit “crisscross applesauce.’’ That sounds delicious to the fearsome quint so the monster settles in.
Could the monster have enjoyed story time without doughnuts? Who knows. “The Not So Quiet Library’’ is not a predictable tale that teaches a valuable lesson about the power of books. Instead it is the sneakiest kind of pro-reading propaganda — a good story, with doughnuts.
NICOLE LAMY
