What do you think?
Rate this book
The Library Pages
While she out on maternity leave, Mrs. Heath, librarian at Happyland Elementary School, is shocked and surprised when she receives a DVD from her students showing some very bad library practices taking place in her absence.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2010
1 person is currently reading
58 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
July 19, 2013
A librarian goes on maternity leave and her worst nightmares come true. The library pages arrange the books by color! They cut out animal pictures from the encyclopedias! They don't check out the books and just hand them out willy-nilly! The horror! This book is super adorable, and I love it with my little librarian heart.
November 19, 2018
Poor Mrs. Heath, the librarian, away on maternity leave. Her students send her a video of how they are taking care of the library in her absence, and the results don't exactly cause her to prop up her feet and take her much needed rest. Pencils in spines, dog-eared pages, cut out pictures - pretty much every librarians nightmare.
I enjoyed this book - a story about books and libraries. How things often aren't what they seem, and how everyone needs a good laugh.
I enjoyed this book - a story about books and libraries. How things often aren't what they seem, and how everyone needs a good laugh.
February 27, 2018
The perfect book for teaching kids what not to do at the library.
A school librarian on maternity leave gets a surprise video of her kids "helping" at the library by organizing all the books by colors, creating a collage out of the encyclopedias and using pencils to mark places in a book for a school research project. All ends well and pairs well with....
(spoiler)
April's Fool Day.
A school librarian on maternity leave gets a surprise video of her kids "helping" at the library by organizing all the books by colors, creating a collage out of the encyclopedias and using pencils to mark places in a book for a school research project. All ends well and pairs well with....
(spoiler)
April's Fool Day.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2023
This book is pretty nuanced. I wonder if kids would get some of these concepts, especially Dewey which is getting replaced by genre and other systems in children’s libraries. I love the idea of calling the helpers, “pages.” So clever. Illustrations feel very modern like the softened animation in a movie.
September 6, 2017
Fun book about kids sending a video to their librarian who is out on maternity leave. Her library pages or helpers have quite the surprise for her with all the mischief they have been up to. A fun way to review library rules!
July 4, 2019
A librarian on maternity leave has a trick played on her by her pupils. Good to illustrate the ‘rules’ of the library to young children. Florence chastises me to never put a pencil in a book as it can break the spine. Suitably told!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2017
I was unsure whether or not to like this one or not. I think that only people who work in libraries will really appreciate it.
February 6, 2019
Fun way to review taking care of the library and books at the beginning of the school year.
August 9, 2024
I love this. The librarian is out on maternity leave. The kids make a video about everything they’re doing to help, to her chagrin. I’m intending to read this to my classes next week and teach them library rules.
September 6, 2014
Library Media Connection (November/December 2010)
While Mrs. Heath, the librarian of Happyland Elementary School is out on maternity leave, she receives a DVD from the "Library Pages," her students who have been selected to assist the substitute for Mrs. Heath. Their responsibilities are to make sure the library rules are adhered to. However, while watching the DVD, Mrs. Heath slowly becomes horrified at what she sees. The video shows students breaking every rule in the library: book care, shelving, and checking out of the books, along with unacceptable behavior. When she goes to call the school to take care of the matter, the Library Pages gather together and wish Mrs. Heath "April Fools." This book is a good title to reiterate library rules and the care of books. The illustrations are colorful and entertaining, which will catch the attention of students. Recommended. Teresa Raimo, School Library Media Specialist, Ridgefield Park (New Jersey) School District
School Library Journal (September 1, 2010)
K-Gr 3-Not since Carmen Deedy's The Library Dragon (Peachtree, 1994) flew in has there been such a humorous way to introduce library protocol. Mrs. Heath, librarian at Happyland Elementary School, receives a DVD and letter from her students while she is on maternity leave. The letter notes that they miss her, and that the substitute falls asleep and snores while reading in the rocker. Meanwhile the pages are "helping" to keep the library running smoothly. Each scene horrifies Mrs. Heath more as the children describe putting all the thin books together, shelving the books by color, mending them with attractively colored duct tape, cutting pictures out of encyclopedias for collages, shelving every third book with the pages pointing out, borrowing books without checking them out-the list goes on and on. Just as the mortified Mrs. Heath is ready to call the school, the kids pop on the screen and yell "April Fool!" Docampo's colorful combination of manual and digital illustrations sets a perfectly mood for this story. This is an entertaining read-aloud, a humorous joke, and an excellent starter for library orientation.-Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
While Mrs. Heath, the librarian of Happyland Elementary School is out on maternity leave, she receives a DVD from the "Library Pages," her students who have been selected to assist the substitute for Mrs. Heath. Their responsibilities are to make sure the library rules are adhered to. However, while watching the DVD, Mrs. Heath slowly becomes horrified at what she sees. The video shows students breaking every rule in the library: book care, shelving, and checking out of the books, along with unacceptable behavior. When she goes to call the school to take care of the matter, the Library Pages gather together and wish Mrs. Heath "April Fools." This book is a good title to reiterate library rules and the care of books. The illustrations are colorful and entertaining, which will catch the attention of students. Recommended. Teresa Raimo, School Library Media Specialist, Ridgefield Park (New Jersey) School District
School Library Journal (September 1, 2010)
K-Gr 3-Not since Carmen Deedy's The Library Dragon (Peachtree, 1994) flew in has there been such a humorous way to introduce library protocol. Mrs. Heath, librarian at Happyland Elementary School, receives a DVD and letter from her students while she is on maternity leave. The letter notes that they miss her, and that the substitute falls asleep and snores while reading in the rocker. Meanwhile the pages are "helping" to keep the library running smoothly. Each scene horrifies Mrs. Heath more as the children describe putting all the thin books together, shelving the books by color, mending them with attractively colored duct tape, cutting pictures out of encyclopedias for collages, shelving every third book with the pages pointing out, borrowing books without checking them out-the list goes on and on. Just as the mortified Mrs. Heath is ready to call the school, the kids pop on the screen and yell "April Fool!" Docampo's colorful combination of manual and digital illustrations sets a perfectly mood for this story. This is an entertaining read-aloud, a humorous joke, and an excellent starter for library orientation.-Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 19, 2012
One afternoon Mrs. Health finds a DVD and letter from her school in the mailbox. The letter says that since Mrs. Health is away after having twins, the students now help out at the library as Library Pages while the substitute naps. Mrs. Health pops in a movie that shows all the new Library Pages telling Mrs. Health not to worry, they will take care of the books while she’s gone. Now the DVD shows each of the pages doing their job at the library. They sort the skinny books together and the fat books together and sort the books by color not by the Dewey Decimal system. They use lots of laminate, color lots of bookmarks, put colored duct tape on the torn books, cut out pictures in the books, dog-ear the pages of others. All in all they do everything wrong at the library and Mrs. Health is about to call the school in panic when all the Library Pages pop onto the screen and shout “April Fool!” Mrs. Health relaxes and needs a nap.
This book is great for elementary school students to learn the rules behind handling books at their library. It teaches them what not to do and what their library worries about. The appeal is in the fact that kids will learn how best to handle their library books and they learn how important their librarian is. This book would do well to be implemented into the display because it would teach children how vital a librarian is to the function of the library. Without the librarian, the library would fall into disarray and chaos and confusion.
Morton, C. (2010). The library pages. Janesville, Wisconsin: UpstartBooks.
This book is great for elementary school students to learn the rules behind handling books at their library. It teaches them what not to do and what their library worries about. The appeal is in the fact that kids will learn how best to handle their library books and they learn how important their librarian is. This book would do well to be implemented into the display because it would teach children how vital a librarian is to the function of the library. Without the librarian, the library would fall into disarray and chaos and confusion.
Morton, C. (2010). The library pages. Janesville, Wisconsin: UpstartBooks.
September 13, 2016
I don't usually review children's books here unless they are wonderful and everyone should know about them, but I suspect that many of you, like me, love libraries, so I want to warn you away from this awful book. It's ostensibly about a librarian who is on family leave with her twins, and her library volunteers (pages) send her a video explaining how well they're getting along without her, cutting pages out of books and shelving by color instead of topic, etc. She is more and more aghast, deciding that really she must do something, and just as she's picking up the phone, it's all revealed as an April Fools prank.
Not funny.
My heart just went out to this poor stressed-out librarian, wearing her bathrobe. She's probably sleep-deprived, and has her hands full with twin babies, and this is what her little assistants come up with to make her feel missed? I know, I know, it's fiction. But still. A royal raspberry for this book.
Not funny.
My heart just went out to this poor stressed-out librarian, wearing her bathrobe. She's probably sleep-deprived, and has her hands full with twin babies, and this is what her little assistants come up with to make her feel missed? I know, I know, it's fiction. But still. A royal raspberry for this book.
January 20, 2011
Love, love, loved this book. Mrs. Heath, the school librarian on maternity leave receives a DVD in the mail from her students...the new library pages. Obviously, they were well schooled (no pun intended) on the proper care and handling of the library books. From dog-eared pages to sticky, dirty hands...from food and drink near library books to rearranging by spine color, these pages know (or do they?) all of the no-no's in libraryland. When they (oops!) momentarily forget all they learned, Mrs. Heath is nearly in tears...good thing it is April Fool's Day!
This is a great book for teaching kids about library book care. It is a 'teachable moment'...obviously you wouldn't just read it to kids, a good librarian would stop, pause, and teach. I love it and I am using it for class visits to the library. Wonderful, colorful illustrations, too.
This is a great book for teaching kids about library book care. It is a 'teachable moment'...obviously you wouldn't just read it to kids, a good librarian would stop, pause, and teach. I love it and I am using it for class visits to the library. Wonderful, colorful illustrations, too.
December 9, 2010
K-3rd- Mrs. Heath the school librarian receives a DVD and a letter from her students at Happyland Elementary while on maternity leave. In the letter the students mention that the substitute falls asleep while reading. So it’s up to the students to make sure that the library continues to run smoothly. The DVD depicts some terrifying scenes of how the students are taking care of the library; shelving thin books together, painting bookmarkers, plastic wrapping the books, color coding the books, dog earring the book pages, duck taping the books, cutting out pages, etc. To Mrs. Heath’s surprise it was all an April Fool’s joke. The students can’t wait for Mrs. Heath to come back! - Review by Cindy Tran
January 29, 2011
A cute story about a librarian, Mrs. Heath, who is on maternity leave. Her students make a a video of the library after the substitute has made them all library pages. The students, of course, mishandle every aspect of the library from color coding books instead of using the Dewey Decimal System to plastic wrapping books so students can have the books in the cafeteria.
This would be useful for introducing and/or reviewing library manners to students at the beginning of the year or half way through the year. The illustrations show the students in their various misdeeds. Also, Mrs. Heath looks a little to princess-like for me with her bathrobe instead of clothing.
This would be useful for introducing and/or reviewing library manners to students at the beginning of the year or half way through the year. The illustrations show the students in their various misdeeds. Also, Mrs. Heath looks a little to princess-like for me with her bathrobe instead of clothing.
August 7, 2014
A group of kids, the library pages, make a video for their school librarian, who is on maternity leave. They show her the new way they are running the library, like turning every fourth book spine side in and cutting out pictures from various books. The librarian gets more and more worried, but at the end, the kids reveal it was all a prank. It's a cute idea for a book, as it's a fun way to teach library behavior. However, some of the things the kids are doing in the story are permanent, like cutting pictures out, so they had to have damaged some books to make the video (does that make sense?) and that completely ruins the book for me.
April 30, 2017
While their librarian, Mrs. Heath, is out on maternity leave, the children who work in the library as pages make a video to show her how they're taking care of the library. Unfortunately, what Mrs. Heath sees alarms her. The pages are breaking all the library rules! The library is in chaos! How will she ever put it back to rights?? Read it and see!
This story is a clever way to teach children what NOT to do to books. I particularly liked the colorful artwork--wish I could get a hairdo like Mrs. Heath's! Recommended for librarians and their pages everywhere.
This story is a clever way to teach children what NOT to do to books. I particularly liked the colorful artwork--wish I could get a hairdo like Mrs. Heath's! Recommended for librarians and their pages everywhere.
January 12, 2011
I really wanted to like this book, but about the only thing I liked about it were the illustrations. Mrs. Heath, the librarian who is on maternity leave, receives a letter and DVD from her Library Pages about the state of the Library while she is out. The children state they are arranging the books by color instead of Dewey number, letting children eat with their books and all sorts of library no-nos. Mrs. Heath is petrified until she gets to the end of her DVD.
January 22, 2011
Fantastic pictures. The kids go through different ways to "help" in the library while the librarian is on maternity leave, but their efforts are things that would actually make the library worse!
Here's the thing: It's a DVD, so while it is a joke, they had to have done it for sake of the video.
Could be useful in sharing what NOT to do, but I think librarians will enjoy it more than children.
Here's the thing: It's a DVD, so while it is a joke, they had to have done it for sake of the video.
Could be useful in sharing what NOT to do, but I think librarians will enjoy it more than children.
December 28, 2012
(4.5 stars)
Mrs. Heath, the librarian at Happy Land Elementary School is on maternity leave after having twin babies. A group of students assure her in a DVD not to worry because as the newest Library Pages, they've got things under control.
A good book for 4th grade orientation. Discuss what is wrong with each of the Library Pages' actions. Ask afterwards for volunteers as the school year's newest Library Pages!
Mrs. Heath, the librarian at Happy Land Elementary School is on maternity leave after having twin babies. A group of students assure her in a DVD not to worry because as the newest Library Pages, they've got things under control.
A good book for 4th grade orientation. Discuss what is wrong with each of the Library Pages' actions. Ask afterwards for volunteers as the school year's newest Library Pages!
November 14, 2014
I ran across this book while shelving one day. (Yes, I am actually a librarian to works in the Children's Department). I decided to read it real quick and loved it! Since I'm a librarian myself, I found this humorous seeing as I've dealt with pretty much all of these situations at one point or another. Purposely or not. And I think it's a good book to read to the kids to teach them what NOT to do at a library and with books. Cute book. Loved it!
October 26, 2010
I wanted to like it (librarian from NC wrote the book) but it was confusing, especially to a preschooler/early education level to whom it is directed. The librarian is home on maternity leave and received a dvd from her students that includes all the things NOT to do in a library...except the confusion is that it's not clear that you don't do these things. Eh!
July 8, 2011
I'm thinking this story will need to be read well after the initial lessons on library procedures/rules/book care, maybe after the Christmas holidays--or better yet, perhaps around April. ;D A lot of times library-based stories fall flat with my students, but I think this one may go over better than some, just for the fun factor--and if I ham it up.
June 27, 2012
I love this story! I volunteer at an elementary school library, so I can relate first-hand to every cringe and sigh and gasp in this story. It is a wonderful read, and would make a great gift for anyone who works in a library. It is also a great lesson for kids about what not to do to books. They must be treated with care!
March 30, 2014
While the school librarian is on maternity leave, many of her students decide to make an April Fools video for her. They become library pages, and while appearing to be helpful actually do everything wrong you can do to a book. I think this book is great to show children how you should treat books by showing them what not to do. Very cute illustrations and storyline.
May 17, 2015
As an elementary librarian, this book terrified me, raising my heart rate and blood pressure upon reading about all of the "wonderful" changes the kids made to the library while the librarian is on maternity leave. Thank goodness the book ends happily or I would've fallen out of my chair. Good resource for teaching students about proper library behavior.
February 11, 2011
At first I thought this was a horror story for librarians. This book would be excellent for school library orientation at the beginning of a school year--highlighting what should or shouldn't be done to books or in the library.
September 26, 2012
My students love this book and have no idea they are learning about library procedures and concepts as we read. They are having too much fun following the mishaps of students as their librarian is on maternity leave. Good for 2nd graders.
July 3, 2013
I felt that this was one of those rather specialized books written by a librarian for the use of librarians. I don't know how widely popular this book would be, but I can see elementary librarians using it to good effect.
April 20, 2014
April Fools! When the librarian is out on leave, the library pages send her a video of just how well they are taking care of the library. Books are being shelved out of order, art collages are being made from the picture books, and the circulation system has been turned off! OH NO! =)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews