December 14, 2004
Great Librarian Short Story
At Milpitas today I was helping to weed the J-fiction M's, and came across The Great Piratical Rumbustification & The Librarian and the Robbers by Margaret Mahy with pictures by Quentin Blake. The title caught my eye immediately and I put it aside to read.
School Library Journal wrote, "In The Librarian and the Robbers, Serena Laburnum, the beautiful librarian, is kidnapped and held for ransom by a gang of ill-read robbers. How she achieves her own rescue, then rescues the Robber Chief, is enough to delight the hearts of young readers and of librarians everywhere."
I was laughing out loud from the start -- especially when after the librarian is kidnapped, the City Council meets to figure out what to do:
'What is it when our librarian is kidnapped?' asked a councillor. 'Is it staff expenditure or does it come out of the cultural fund?' (p. 48)
When the robbers all catch Raging Measles from her, they allow her to go back to the library and borrow "The Dictionary of Efficient and Effacious Home Nursing" (calling off the kidnapping as a temporary measure) and she returns and nurses them back to health. She reads to them:
Robin Hood made them uneasy. He was a robber, as they were, but full of noble thoughts such as giving to the poor. These robbers had not planned on giving to the poor, but only on keeping for themselves. (p. 51)
A terrible earthquake hits the town and all the books topple from the shelves (which is of course the first story I had ever heard about Margaret and her Santa Cruz library...)
'Pulverized by literature, ' thought Mrs. Laburnum. 'The ideal way for a librarian to die.' (p. 60)
But the robbers come and save her! And not only does everyone live happily ever after, but the robbers give up being villians and become children's librarians!
I'm definitely adding this to my list of good librarian stories!
Posted by Emily at December 14, 2004 10:53 PM | TrackBack