The Tiny Hero of Ferny Creek Library by Linda Bailey (review)

Eddie is a tiny green bug who lives with his extended family in among human fourth-graders in their classroom at Ferny Creek Elementary. When his aunt Min disappears, he braves spiders, vacuum cleaners, and kids’ careless footsteps to find her in the school library; there the two overhear the new librarian, Ms. Visch, plotting to turn the library into a testing center. Eddie’s determined to save the day, so he embarks on a campaign of messages he writes in blueberry juice on sticky notes and places around the library. Eddie’s bug’s-eye view renders the familiar environs of the elementary school hilariously strange and thrilling. Bookworms (book bugs?) will instantly recognize themselves in Eddie, whose family sees him as an absent-minded dreamer, and they’ll be eager to read or reread the books that inspire him, from Where the Wild Things Are to The Borrowers to Charlotte’s Web, the last of which seems to have inspired Eddie’s campaign. (A “bugliography” at the end lists all the books referenced by Eddie and Min throughout the novel.) A warm, funny tribute to the power of books and stories, Eddie’s adventure will have readers seeing anew the magic of libraries and ready to defend them from the Ms. Visches of the world. Final art not seen.