Nia and the New Free Library by Ian Lendler

Nia and the New Free Library Reviews

• 
  Ms. B

  It takes a village to build a library in this homage to the author's grandfather's hometown.
• 
  RJ

  (exasperated sigh)
  
  On the one hand, I do like how this book emphasizes that libraries are places for creating and learning and connecting, not just storing books?
  
  On the other hand....... it is incredibly cynical in some places (no one uses libraries and kids be on their phones, amiright) and very flippant in others (the sigh of relief I made when Nia said "wait, we don't have a librarian!"..... and the way my stomach flopped when the solution was "all of the townspeople volunteer to be librarians!! requires no education, infrastructure, or wages!!") in ways that really undermine the message.
  
  I am left feeling like this picture book devalues libraries as much as it values them.
• 
  Megan

  Would have been a 5 if the end hadn't insinuated any person off the street can act as librarian :|
• 
  Mutually Inclusive

  Inspired by the author’s experience at the grand opening of the library in his childhood home, Nia and the New Free Library by Ian Lendler is a delightful picture book retelling the classic folktale Stone Soup.
  
  It all starts off quite dramatically, with the Littletown Library being swept away by a tornado after years of neglect. Everyone has a different idea about what to do with the space, but a clever girl named Nia wants to rebuild the library. The town isn’t convinced, but Nia comes up with a plan to change their minds.
  
  Nia gathers at her favorite place, under the tree in front of the library that was, and begins writing. She doesn’t stop until she has a wagon full of books. She begins to offer them to townspeople, creating the New Free Library. When the townspeople find that the tales aren’t exactly as they remembered, Nia hands them a pencil and encourages them to fix the errors. Before they know it, the whole town has rallied together to make the New Free Library the best library the town has ever seen.
  
  Nia and the New Free Library is a clever story about the way communities come together. I am looking forward to my local library fully reopening, and I can’t wait to see my community coming back after the pandemic to learn, share, and create together again. But for now, I will happily settle for Nia’s New Library.
  
  The illustrations by Mark Pett are fantastic. The level of detail put into capturing the individual personality of each townsperson was so impressive – from the mayor, all the way to the distracted mom and her son, I felt like I understood the characters right away.
  
  Ian Lendler is a journalist and award-winning author based in the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn more about him and his work (including picture books, nonfiction, and graphic novels), please visit his website at ianlendler.com.
  
  Mark Pett is an author and illustrator (or “authorstrator”) of several books for children, and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Please visit his website at
  markpett.com/authorstrator.
  
  I want to thank Chronicle Kids for sending me a copy of Nia and the New Free Library. It was such a treat, and I’m sure it will bring joy to all the young readers who are missing their libraries these days.
  

  
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• 
  Almira

  When the town library is uprooted by a tornado, various people in the town have great "ideas" about what should go on the vacant land now.
  Nia, lover of books, especially cookbooks, tries to convince the towns people to rebuild the library, everyone "pooh poohs" this.
  So, Nia decides to take matters into her own hands.........
• 
  Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance

  A tornado carries off the town's library, and no one sees the need to replace it except for Nia. Nia concocts a plan to remind the town's people of their connections to the library, and the library is rebuilt.
  
  This is a fascinating story of how people become vested in what they do themselves.
• 
  Elisabeth

  3.5 stars.
• 
  Laure Hittle

  i want to do this. Like for reals. Like host a whole library-creating community extravaganza.
• 
  Mae Respicio

  This is such a lovely, meaningful, and fun story—all about the power of books and community. A total charmer!
• 
  Jennifer

  I feel like the story falls flat a bit and is also pretty inaccurate of how libraries work in reality; however, the author does a good job of emphasizing community, importance of community spaces, and the fact that libraries are different today. I think the book also shows how most people misunderstand the library and all of the different services and programs does for its local community.
• 
  Erin

  I love the community aspects of this book and the Stone Soup reveal at the end. I love that the library starts out as a little-valued asset, but then the community gets more and more involved, interested, and appreciative. And the final library scene does a great job showing the connective nature of libraries: not just books, but also programming and technology. But I have some serious questions about how this portrays libraries as well.
  
  I'm not usually this librarian, but librarians *don't* typically write the books in the library, librarians *aren't* usually volunteers, and librarians are generally expected to have an advanced degree in Library or Information Science. And libraries are not staffed just by librarians, but also pages who shelve books, catalogers who make sure each book is searchable, processors who make sure each book is findable, maintenance workers who keep the building in good shape, and many other employees (including volunteers) who help keep the library running. (While sometimes all these jobs are done by few people, the reality is that they are each unique tasks within the library.) This was cute, with really charming and diverse illustrations, but it left me feeling a little wrong-footed.
  
  In some ways it reminded me of
  Red Knit Cap Girl and the Reading Tree, which has the same community vibe, demonstrates how different skills and items are necessary for a good library, but does not pretend to describe an actual library.
• 
  Stacie

  As a resident of a small town and member of our library board, I know how important a library can be to a community. We built a new library in our town several years ago and being a part of that committee, raising money, and making decisions about the design is one of my proudest accomplishments.
  
  Nia lives in Littletown and the town’s library had slowly become unnoticed by the residents of her community. The hustle and bustle of life had taken over and no one seemed to notice the library, except for Nia. It was her favorite place. Then a tornado came and took the library away. When the town came together to decide what to put in that empty space, no one suggested a library, except for Nia.
  
  Nia made the residents see that they too missed the library with a bit of childhood reverse psychology and soon a new library was being built. But, it took the entire community to come together to make it happen.
  
  I love the message in this story and think every library needs to have a copy of this book sitting on its shelf. Nia brings her community together for a purpose, building and restocking a new library. But, beyond that, she also makes the citizens realize that they NEED a library in their town.
  
  Pett’s illustrations have a 1970s “Schoolhouse Rock” feel and his people illustrations are so fun…giving each community member their own role and personality in the story. The illustrations give the story that personal feel where kids reading this book will feel like they too could make a difference.
  
  I love how this book shows that kids can have big ideas too. Reading this book may just encourage you to visit your library too!
• 
  Debbie Jo

  This could have been a fantastic book - but in the end it was a disappointment. Nia seems to be the only person who values the local library. She begins to write books & share them with people - who notice mistakes. Nia has been writing her versions of books she’s read. People begin to correct the books & write more. They do build a library & there is a ribbon cutting about to happen - when Nia says “We have a library. But we don’t have a librarian.” The mayor asks “Does anyone here want to be the librarian?” Everyone raises their hand - and Nia says “That should fix it” - and the library opens.
  
  I have no idea why there was no actual librarian for the library. The author’s note acknowledges the Head Librarian for the library his grandfather helped bring to his town. As a school librarian, the omission of a librarian hits close to home. Too many school districts no longer have librarians & this book seems to suggest that librarians aren’t at the heart of libraries.
  
  Before reading the book, I thought Nia was going to have a Little Free Library. That would have been a fine way for Nia to share her love of reading & books.
• 
  Katie

  The town’s library is nearly forgotten until the day a tornado flies it away. No one is particularly bothered by this except Nia, who loved the library, so she gets to work rewriting books to share. Nia is determined and finds a way to inspire a new love for stories in the whole town.
  
  How Nia does it is clever and funny and, though I don’t want to spoil the surprise, kids love seeing a child character being smart, making a difference, and changing adults’ minds. Especially a child character who loves books and the library as much as they do.
  
  As an adult reader, I enjoyed seeing the author’s note at the end and how he incorporated a childhood memory into such a fun story.
  
  To me, a perfect picture book involves perfectly matching art, and this one goes spectacularly. The people’s facial expressions particularly were amazing, and Nia’s last face is priceless. I love how soft the art feels because it goes so well with the quieter feel of the story.
  
  I’d recommend for any kid ages 4 and up, and for 3 year olds who love sitting for story time.
• 
  Sirah

  When the old library in Nia's town is stolen by a tornado, everyone has ideas for what to do with the space. Maybe a parking lot. Maybe a skyscrapter. Nia, apparently one of the few regular readers at the erstwhile library, has other ideas. With a bit of determination, creativity and orange slices for energy, she invites others to work with her to make something worthwhile and that the whole community can be proud of.
  
  Of course I love libraries, but this book stands out for two more important reasons. First is Nia's character. I love that she doesn't cry, doesn't pout, doesn't get mad. She sees a problem and she does something about it, but she's happy to invite others in. The other thing I love is the way this problem is solved. Sometimes we look at a problem (a new library is too expensive and too time-consuming and not useful) and it's too big. Yet Nia takes it one page at a time, and between her persistence and the contributions of everyone in the town, they're able to make the problem surmountable. I'd love to see more of this tucked into children's books.
• 
  Diane

  “But the began to remember words and ideas that had inspired them.”
  
  When the small, shabby public library gets blown away by a tornado, the townspeople don’t see the importance or financial feasibility of rebuilding the library. Nia sees differently. So Nia begins to rebuild the library on her own by writing books. As she starts to show her books to people in town, they find fault with them, so she hands them a pencil and says “maybe you can fix it.”
  
  Soon, the whole town is contributing to this new free library. “There were so many books that they spilled into the road and stopped traffic.” All the townspeople arrive at the decision that they need to build a structure to hold all these books and the project begins. And soon, the Littletown’s New Free Library is a vibrant part of the community again.
  
  I love how Nia slowly draws her community in to the understanding of how important a library is for the town. A definite addition to my school library.
• 
  Aolund

  When the town’s library is swept off in a tornado, at first no one but Nia thinks it’s worth replacing—who uses libraries anymore, anyway? But when Nia (depicted with tan skin and brown hair) decides to start writing books to create a new library, it’s not long before the whole town becomes involved in the enterprise, eventually leading them to create a new library to house all of their creations. A really touching and funny story about teamwork and spaces that make community meaningful.
  
  Also, while I can’t say I loved the part where a White man is shown misinterpreting a line from Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise, it’s not like that couldn’t happen in real life—and it would actually be useful to break down this microaggression with students.
  
  Themes: New, Building, Work Together, Community
  Age range: Prek-First grade
  
• 
  Mary

  When a tornado destroys the town library, the town is only interested in how the space will be used. Nia totally disagrees with this attitude and begins writing her own books and eventually gets the community interested in books and reading again. What works: Nia getting the community invested in having a library and making it a community effort. What doesn't: Everyone writing stories from memory and not giving credit to the original authors will be confusing. Even though the tone at times wavers between preachy and sarcastic, it does strongly advocate for libraries and librarians in a way that young readers can understand and appreciate. This will be a useful picture book when introducing the public library.
• 
  Anna

  A fictional story inspired by the author's real-life experience, Nia and the New Free Library shows how one girl can bring a whole town together to rebuild (and rewrite) a library. Bordering on ridiculously unrealistic, I still thought it was fun to talk about how someone might go about rebuilding a library in real life versus Nia's fictional approach, and how people can work together to accomplish great things.
  
  I chose to share this story with my fourth-grade classes for a National School Library Month lesson because I liked the discussion possibilities and because I felt like they needed a little break from all the non-fiction, historical and biographical stories I've been teaching recently.
  
  Story: 4
  Illustrations: 4
  Read-aloud: 4
• 
  Edouine Champagne (MB)

  I admire Nia's courage her determination to rebuild the local library. I used to work at a daycare center where we used to take trips to the library once a week. Unfortunately, everything has remained closed to the public when the pandemic hits but, the library offers curbside pickup for all materials. However, they provided that it wasn't the same for the children as when they went inside the library. They couldn't make their own choice, especially for four-year-old kids. The most exciting part of going to the library was checking books out. So I do understand where Nia's coming from. this was a good read.
• 
  Christina Getrost

  A cute picture book about libraries--I love the message that a library is an expression of its town and its people. This book is a sweet fable about a town library that has been ignored for so long that when a tornado tears it down, everyone has other ideas about what to replace it with. But young Nia wants to rebuild the library, and through her persistence--writing down all of the stories she can remember reading--she entices people one by one into helping her to get the library re-established, better than ever, with more services than just books of course. The book also kind of reminded me of Stone Soup (which of course was the intent--that's Nia's favorite book!).
• 
  Andrew

  Nia's hometown library has been destroyed as a tornado. However, the workers, even the mayor believe there is no need for a library. So Nia sets out writing stories, but when the town finds something wrong with their ways of life and the stories, they start writing and writing and writing...
  Suddenly, Nia is handing out stories from her free library.
  
  Cute illustrations, an activist mentality, and even a slight political anger at certain people in positions of power (in my opinion), but a fun read nonetheless.
• 
  Jenn

  This is a great story to hammer home to importance of libraries in a time when books are being challenged and there are people who think you can get everything online. Asks questions about what makes a community, who can be an advocate and activist for the library, who is a writer, etc.
  
  Probably will be added to our home library. I'm guessing the author may write one about schools, based on the ending the school is the next victim of a tornado, and the neglect of the community.
• 
  Zan Porter

  When Littletown Library is destroyed by a tornado, it seems like book-loving Nia is the only one who cares; so she starts the "new free library" under the tree where she used to read, and writes out familiar stories and rhymes that are just a little bit wrong, and encourages the people who check them out to correct them--until soon the whole of Littletown is filled with people reading and writing books.
• 
  Pam

  One young girl, Nia, shows determination and perseverance as she reminds her town how important the library is to everyone. After a tornado destroys the town library, no one wants to rebuild it. Nia begins writing her own books and eventually the whole town joins the writing and reading process. An amusing ending as readers see Nia read her favorite book - Stone Soup. They will understand the connection to what she has done throughout the book.