D.W.'s Library Card
 Marc Brown
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 Little, Brown & Co.
  ISBN: 0316110132


D.W. can't wait to get a library card, she just has to learn how to write her name first.

When D.W. & Arthur are at the library one Saturday, D.W. asks her brother to check out a book for her. He's mortified at the idea of having a “baby” book on his record.

D.W. asks Mrs. Turner, the librarian, how she can get her own library card & the librarian's answer sets D.W. off on a discouraging adventure because D.W.'s parents have given her a handful of a name. No wonder everyone calls her by her initials!

Still, patiently, D.W. keeps on practising her full name, over & over again...until...she gets it right. Then presents Mrs. Turner with her full written name, & in return gets her very own first library card.

Off she trots to find the book her brother wouldn't check out for her. It is no longer on the shelf. Mrs. Turner tells her it was borrowed & will be returned in a week. One whole, long week. D.W. must now learn patience!

Well, D.W. does get her book & another lesson, this time about being responsible for the books she borrows from the library.

D.W.'s Library Card is a fun & lively read, about the trials & the thrills of becoming a library patron.

I was lucky enough, the other day, to watch a similar ceremony at our local library, when a mother brought her daughter up to the desk to get her first library card. It's such a little rite that should, actually, merit balloons & bells, whistles & the whole community joining in in a rousing chorus of hallelujahs! Another child yearns to read!

D.W.'s Library Card is also about learning to write & to read, surmounting boyish teasing, & fear of responsibility.

This is one book, I bet your kids are going to ask you to read again & again & again. Enjoy!

Besides creating the best-selling D.W. series which includes: D.W. Go To Your Room!; D.W.'s Lost Blankie; D.W. The Picky Eater; D.W. Rides Again; D.W. Thinks Big -- Marc Brown has also created the hugely popular Arthur Adventures.
(07/07/02)

Rebecca