When the Library Lights Go Out

 

When the Library Lights Go Out by Megan McDonald and Katherine Tillotson   40 pages

It’s night time at the library. All the people have gone home, and it’s very, very quite. Well, except for Lion’s snoring. 

Rabbit can’t sleep; he wants to go an adventure! Lion won’t wake up. He digs deeper in puppet box, looking for Hermit Crab. He wants Hermit Crab to tell him a “get-sleepy story.”  But he can’t find Hermit Crab.

Rabbit looks all over the Library, but he can’t find Hermit Crab. He makes enough noise to wake up Lion. By now, Rabbit knows that Hermit Crab is G-O-N-E or L-O-S-T! Lion and Rabbit begin to explore the library in search of their friend.

A cute little story, I was attracted to it because of Rabbit, who is just adorable, and I work in a library.  I think it could have been a little deeper, therefore “When the Library Lights Go Out” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Thornhill

Thornhill by Pam Smy, 533 pages

“Parallel stories set in different times, one told in prose and one in pictures, converge as a girl unravels the mystery of the abandoned Thornhill Institute next door. 1982: Mary is a lonely orphan at the Thornhill Institute For Children at the very moment that it's shutting its doors. When her few friends are all adopted or re-homed and she's left to face a volatile bully alone, her revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself. 2017: Ella has just moved to a new town where she knows no one. From her room on the top floor of her new home, she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute across the way, where she glimpses a girl in the window. Determined to befriend the girl and solidify the link between them, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill's shadowy past. Told in alternating, interwoven plotlines--Mary's through intimate diary entries and Ella's in bold, striking art--Pam Smy's Thornhill is a haunting exploration of human connection, filled with suspense.” This was creepy.  I wasn’t expecting the ending either.  This is a good book for teens who like graphic novels and horror.