Property of the Rebel Librarian

There is nothing more dangerous seventh grader June Harper's life than.... books. At least, that's what her parents and really almost every adult in Dogwood would have you believe. When her uber strict parents get the librarian suspended and the school makes sure all of the good– I mean “terrible,” books are removed from the library (e.g. The Lightning Thief, Goosebumps, Holes, The Crossover, etc.), June finds herself at a crossroads. Will she sit down and accept the restricted, vanilla life her parents and the school have forced upon her and her peers or will she be the hero that Dogwood Middle does not deserve, but desperately needs?

I describe this book as “Fahrenheit 451.. but for children.” I loved this book– not only do we see growth in June as a character in her relationships with her peers, but we also see her grow stronger in her convictions to stand up for what she believes in and stand up for herself, especially when the adults in her life, namely her parents, were being so absurd she might as well have called them Camus and Kierkegaard instead of Mom and Dad.

(..... get it? because... they were absurdists.)

There were parts of this book where my mouth literally fell open at how crazy her mom and dad were being (like when they were bad mouthing the teaching profession– ohhhhhhh not a thing someone with a BS in education wants to hear; I was shooting daggers at my car radio). But that's alright because the last conversation June has with her dad at the end of the book– that last line from her– tooootally made up for having to listen to her mom say that becoming a teacher was throwing your life away.