Library Girl
by Polly Horvath
Intermediate    Ferguson/Holiday    256 pp.
9/24    9780823455676    $18.99

Readers willing to suspend an absolute ocean of disbelief will find an original, outlandish romp of a tale. Newborn Esmeralda is left in the stacks of the Huffington (IN) Public Library and kept secret by four librarians who all long to be mothers. The women take turns staying overnight in the library as they raise the girl together, somehow avoiding detection for her entire childhood. Fast-forward to when Essie, now eleven, is given a bit more freedom to explore the wider world, venturing outside the library’s walls for the first time. One day, she meets a boy named G.E. who Essie becomes convinced is in fact her twin brother and also in a parallel situation to hers—that he’s being raised by four fathers, men who work in a nearby department store. As it turns out, Essie is mistaken—but not entirely so. The novel’s setup allows Horvath plenty of opportunities for commentary on reading and literature (“A good book or play was a good book or play whether it was Louis the Fish or Henry V”), libraries, family, and even the perils of revolving doors. Horvath takes as much care with the characterizations of the four librarians as she does with Essie’s, and as always her storytelling abilities are top-notch.

From the ">September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.