Congress Has a Library
by Mary Therese Grabowski
Rated: 4 Stars ****

About the Author

MaryTherese(MT) Grabowskidoesn’t just bleed red. Red, white and blue to be more precise! This only daughter of six childrenborn into an Air Force family has a patrioticgene that has only strengthened with life experiences.Grabowski’s imagination gave her apassion for writing and storytelling.After graduation from Wesleyan Collegewith a degree in Communications,Grabowski spent the next twenty yearsin broadcasting. First on the air in radioand then as a reporter and television newsanchor. The military and government weretwo of this award winning journalistsbeats, so telling those stories not onlyhoned her skills it made her passion forpatriotism and writing to help keep peopleinformed grow. She was lured from the broadcast newsbusiness into the military advocacy worldwhere she spent six years defending Robins AFB Georgia and our United States AirForce at the local, state and national levelsas the Executive Director of a non-profit organization. It was during this time that something life changing happened. Herthen 12 year old niece wanted to go to Washington DC on a trip. Grabowski told her niece that they would vacation to D.C. later in the year for a fun, but it would bean educational trip! One day during the Presidential Campaignin 2008 Grabowski and Sam were listening to the radio in the car when a storycame on about Barack Obama winning the Democratic Nomination. The news story was discussing who his potentialcabinet members might be. Grabowskiasked Sam, “Can you tell me who makesup The President’s Cabinet?” Samantha without hesitation responded, “Why do I care who makes his furniture?” Needlessto say Grabowski almost wrecked the car. This bright, well-educated niece wasserious. Grabowski quickly learned thatmost students do not seriously learn about government until they are a sophomorein high school. To the author, that was alarming as in two years, students will be eligible to vote.After a restless night of sleep, thecharacter America Johnson and The Spiritof America Series was born.

Review

The book begins with a short but pointed dedication to librarians (or in other words library staff.

This book will delight fans of this series as it continues onwards into Spirit of America, book 5. The book also appears to be a good stand-alone story too.

The main characters – Benny and America have a school assignment to do and are supposed to investigate books in the library and think libraries are dull, which is typical of people’s thinking in so many places. This book may be based in America and written by an American author, but the thinking is the same as in the UK and other countries in the world. This children’s book sets out to challenge this. It says to children how cool libraries are because there’s more than meets the eye to them and even the most important people in the world, in this case, the President of the USA has a library. The library sparks amazing imagination as readers enter the character America’s dreams and the wonderful world of libraries that she had not expected. This is a great part of the book to acquaint children (and adults reading it to their child) with libraries and their importance and demonstrates why in the age of technology, libraries are still relevant today, but all in story form.

The book comes together quite well as a way to explain what a library really is and why they should be used. There was a little excitement about there being more to a library than what is seen at first. I felt there could be a little bit more drive and excitement there. The library coming into jeopardy was a good decision. It became more immediate and adds to the pace.

I think the book will serve a valuable purpose. Having worked in libraries I know how challenging it is to keep libraries relevant and to show how important they are, so it is good that authors are getting behind them.

Readers should read on to find out what the Benny and America think of books. Do they still think libraries and books are boring? Read the book to find out.

There are good illustrations throughout the book to assist in telling the story, it isn’t a picture book though. There’s plenty of reading to be done, but not too much for children.

There is a fun quiz at the end of the story, which is worth a look to see how many answers you can get right.

With thanks to Mary Therese Grabowski for allowing me to review her book and for BookTasters for giving me the opportunity to choose from a range of books to review.