The Midnight Library

by Kazuno Kohara, Kazuno Kohara (Illustrator)

Overview

Perfect for bedtime reading, pay a visit to the Midnight Library where you can snuggle up for a nighttime story.
There is a little library that only opens at night. In the library there is a little librarian—and her three assistant owls—who helps everyone find the perfect book. The library is always peaceful and quiet . . . until one night when some of the animals stir up a little trouble (and a little fun!) in the Midnight Library.
From Kazuno Kohara, creator of the New York Times Best Illustrated book Ghosts in the House! comes a beautiful book brimming with cozy charm.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596439856
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	06/17/2014
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.90(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Kazuno Kohara grew up in Japan and studied printmaking in the UK. She lives in Osaka, Japan.

Editorial Reviews

04/14/2014
For children whose early bedtimes make them feel like they’re missing all the fun, Kohara (Here Comes Jack Frost) offers a gentle middle-of-the-night fantasy. Her library for nocturnal creatures is open all night, staffed by a young librarian with braids and her three assistant owls. They take good care of their animal patrons, guiding a noisy band of squirrel musicians upstairs to the activity room and encouraging Miss Wolf to stick with the story she’s reading, despite the traumatic part in the middle (“She was crying so much her tears fell like rain”). The ringing of a bell lets everyone know that dawn is coming, and they have to go home—even the tortoise who insists that he has to finish his book first: “I only have 500 pages left!” Kohara, a skilled visual storyteller, creates intricate linocut prints whose black outlines are accented with ochre and midnight blue. She switches nimbly between big spreads, sequential panels, and cutaway views. The curves of the library’s doorway and its black spiral staircase give the pages just the tiniest taste of charming gothic gloom. Ages 3–6. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"A nocturnal little librarian in pigtails and her three owl assistants help the library's visitors find exactly what they need in the latest from Kohara . . . It goes without saying that this is perfect for storytime." - Booklist

 

"Kohara's gentle story and vibrant compositions have an old-fashioned sensibility and simplicity." - The Horn Book

 

"Original, imaginative and perfect for naptime or bedtime." - Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

From the Publisher

06/01/2014
PreS-Gr 1—Kohara's latest picture book is tailor-made for pajama storytimes. The Midnight Library is unusual—only open from midnight until dawn. Bustling among furry and feathered patrons, a little librarian and her three assistant owls help each and every reader find the perfect book. Acknowledging that modern libraries also function as vibrant community centers where noise is accommodated, the diminutive information professional cheerfully leads a band of musical squirrels to the activity room, where they "played their instruments as loud as they liked." As dawn approaches and the librarian prepares to close down, she patiently persuades a slowly reading tortoise to get a library card and borrow his selection—a scene which will ring familiar for many librarians. As in Ghosts in the House (Roaring Brook, 2008), Kohara employs a limited but bold palette for her sightly retro-style linocut illustrations. Thick black lines define the young librarian, her animal patrons, and the angular, teetering stacks of books. Mustard yellow, which serves as the primary color throughout, lends the nighttime setting a coziness and warmth appropriate for snuggling up for storytime. Pops of navy blue accent both the midnight sky glimpsed through windows and the dozens of library books. Kohara achieves something unique with this title: a modern sensibility with a classic aesthetic. A delightful addition to picture book collections.—Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

★ 2014-03-17
A celebration of the expanded roles of libraries in the 21st century takes its visual cue from the best mid-20th-century picture books. "Once there was a library that opened only at night. A little librarian worked there with her three assistant owls." These sentences appear on opposite sides of the gutter of a double-page spread that shows a simply depicted girl in a dress, with hair in sticking-out braids and arms full of books, moving briskly across the library. Bold black outlines the little librarian and her avian assistants, all of whom are the same goldenrod color as the library walls and the outside-of-the-windows stars. The third color in the tricolor prints is a deep blue, consistently coloring the many books shelved throughout the pages. The little librarian and her assistants cheerfully accommodate musical squirrels who disrupt silent readers, a wolf who weeps over a sad part in a book ("she was crying so much her tears fell like rain") and a tortoise whose slow reading threatens to keep the library open past its dawn closing hour. The text and artwork do not miss a beat as the closing spread shows the little librarian and her assistants reading a bedtime story. The book-and-star-themed endpapers add to the charm. Original, imaginative and perfect for naptime or bedtime. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews