Books About Libraries for All Ages
As a book lover myself (obviously), this book list is a lover letter for my heart – books about libraries for all ages! Whether you’re reading aloud a picture book or searching for some fiction or nonfiction for adults, there’s a little something for everyone on this list.
What I really love is this list has all sorts of great books from realistic fiction to historical fiction, from fantasy to science fiction, and even nonfiction – all about libraries! And as someone who has loved libraries all her life, this list makes me happy (and it’s only the tiniest portion of all the great books out there.)
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Books About Libraries for All Ages
Ban This Book by Alan Gratz
An inspiring tale of a fourth-grader who fights back when her favorite book is banned from the school library–by starting her own illegal locker library!
It all started the day Amy Anne Ollinger tried to check out her favorite book in the whole world, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, from the school library. That’s when Mrs. Jones, the librarian, told her the bad news: her favorite book was banned! All because a classmate’s mom thought the book wasn’t appropriate for kids to read.
Amy Anne decides to fight back by starting a secret banned books library out of her locker. Soon, she finds herself on the front line of an unexpected battle over book banning, censorship, and who has the right to decide what she and her fellow students can read.
Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay
Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindseyâs friend Beth wants to sell the editor her childrenâs book, but Bethâs boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, heâs found murderedâand Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fastâbefore they throw the book at the wrong person.
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
When Kyle Keeley learns that the world’s worldâs most famous game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, has designed the townâs new library and is having an invitation-only lock-in on opening night, Kyle is determined to be there! But the tricky part isnât getting into the libraryâitâs getting out. Because when morning comes, the doors stay locked. Kyle and the other kids must catch every clue and solve every puzzle to find the hidden escape route!
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it’s already been stolen.
London’s underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infestedâthe laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding somethingâsecrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.
Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an optionâbecause it isnât just Ireneâs reputation at stake, itâs the nature of reality itselfâŚ
A Kind of Paradise by Amy Rebecca Tan
Thirteen-year-old Jamie Bunn made a mistake at the end of the school year. A big one. And every kid in her middle school knows all about it. Now she has to spend her summer vacation volunteering at the local libraryâas punishment. What a waste of a summer!
Or so she thinks.
The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, translated by Lilit Thwaites
As a young girl, Dita is imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken from her home in Prague in 1939, Dita does her best to adjust to the constant terror of her new reality. But even amidst horror, human strength and ingenuity persevere. When Jewish leader Fredy Hirsch entrusts Dita with eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak into the camp, She embraces the responsibilityâand so becomes the librarian of Auschwitz.
From one of the darkest chapters in history comes this extraordinary story of courage and hope.
A Library by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Erin K. Robinson
In what other place can a child “sail their dreams” and “surf the rainbow” without ever leaving the room? This ode to libraries is a celebration for everyone who loves stories, from seasoned readers to those just learning to love words, and it will have kids and parents alike imagining where their library can take them.
This inspiring read-aloud includes stunning illustrations and a note from Nikki Giovanni about the importance of libraries in her own childhood.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the libraryâand if so, who?
Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a âdelightfulâŚreflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in Americaâ (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.
In the âexquisitely written, consistently entertainingâ (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.
The Library of Ever by Zeno Alexander
With her parents off traveling the globe, Lenora is bored, bored, boredâuntil she discovers a secret doorway into the ultimate library. Mazelike and reality-bending, the library contains all the universeâs wisdom. Every book ever written, and every fact ever known, can be found within its walls. And Lenora becomes its newly appointed Fourth Assistant Apprentice Librarian.
She rockets to the stars, travels to a future filled with robots, and faces down a dark nothingness that wants to destroy all knowledge. To save the library, Lenora will have to test her limits and uncover secrets hidden among its shelves.
Library Wars: Love & War by Kiiro Yumi, original concept by Hiro Arikawa
Iku Kasahara has dreamed of joining the Library Forces ever since one of its soldiers stepped in to protect her favorite book from being confiscated in a bookstore when she was younger. But now that sheâs finally a recruit, sheâs finding her dream job to be a bit of a nightmare. Especially since her hard-hearted drill instructor seems to have it in for her!
Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
Learn about the library, checking out books, and story time with Lola. Every Tuesday Lola and her mommy go to the library. Lola meets her friends there. They share books and don’t have to be quiet all the time. The nice librarian tells stories. There is a big machine that buzzes Lola’s books in and out, and she can take any books she wants home with her. Lola and her mommy always stop for a treat on the way home. No wonder Lola loves the library.
The Loud Librarian by Jenna Beatrice, illustrated by Erika Lynne Jones
Penelope is perfect for the job of student-librarian. Friendly? Check. Helpful? Check. Book lover? Check. Thereâs just one snag. Penelope is…LOUD. Bookcases may topple and the ground may quake at the sound of her voice, but Penelope is determined to prove sheâs perfect for the job and stay true to herself. Can a little librarian with a big voice find a place where she belongs?
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?
Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children by Jan Pinborough and Debby Atwell
Once upon a time, American children couldnât borrow library books. Reading wasnât all that important for children, many thought. Luckily Miss Anne Carroll Moore thought otherwise! This is the true story of how Miss Moore created the first childrenâs room at the New York Public Library, a bright, warm room filled with artwork, window seats, and most important of all, borrowing privileges to the worldâs best childrenâs books in many different languages.
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeerâs Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorceryâmagical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.
Then an act of sabotage releases the libraryâs most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.
As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything sheâs been taughtâabout sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.
Thief of Lies by Brenda Drake
Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels-magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books-rescue them from a demonic hound.
Jumping into some of the world’s most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren’t busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik’s world and her own, before both are destroyed.
