posted on 25 Nov 2017

Library Lady by Dorothy Clewes

Published in 1970 this tale of the power of libraries seems remarkably relevant today when so many of them are under the dark threat of closure. This is the story of six year old Ginny who loves reading but doesn’t have enough books until she finds out that she can join the library.

Thrilled by this and the discovery that the library is not only for borrowing books but is a place where lots of fun things happen, she takes it on herself to try and convert her older, gown-up brothers Charlie and Dudley to join as well. She attends an author reading and gets one of her books signed as well as learning about how books get produced. Then there’s a special exhibition of fishing books and some rare fishing equipment ……… but more of this later.

At this point the author, Dorothy Clewes, takes us somewhere a bit unexpected. Instead of more about Ginny and her fun times at the library we get much more about Charlie and Dudley and the terrible mistakes they’ve made by not taking education seriously. Ginny’s mom in particular berates the boys for laughing at Ginny’s love of books and tells them that they could learn from their sister – both boys are in dead-end jobs and taking more interest in books could lead them to something more satisfying.

Charlie and Dudley visit the library and inadvertently find themselves recruited as members and later that evening they go to their favourite café and boast about handling the expensive fishing equipment and rods. The boys have some less than savoury ‘friends’ who listen to the story and next day there is a robbery at the library.

Ginny is distraught when she turns up and finds the police there and rushing home she tells her brothers that the fishing gear has been stolen. They immediately see that it’s their so-called friends who have done this but they still find themselves being questioned and finger-printed by the police and held as suspects until the gang turn up trying to use the rods at a pool on the common.

Needless to say, for Charlie and Dudley a lesson has been learned.

This little morality tale has been illustrated by Robert Hales – the illustrator who is something of a mystery and who featured in a recent article on this site. His illustrations are period pieces in themselves and they reek of the 1970s. The illustrations inside the book are black and white but his colour work on the dust jacket is a delight – I’d like to have a large framed print of this for my living room wall.

This title is quite hard to find and you’ll have to pay well over £20 to get a copy in decent condition but if you love libraries you’ll want one to add to your collection.

 

Terry Potter

November 2017