The Librarian's Stories

Written by Lucy Falcone

Illustrated by Anna Wilson

POW! Kids Books

978-1-576879450

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

February 2021

 

Though many young readers will recognize the name L. M. Falcone as the writer of supernatural mysteries like Walking with the Dead (Kids Can Press, 2005), Lucy Falcone has recently pursued writing emotionally-charged picture books like I Didn't Stand Up (Clockwise Press, 2018) that remind that what really counts, like justice and compassion. In The Librarian's Stories, it's humanity and literacy.

From The Librarian's Stories by Lucy Falcone, illus. by Anna Wilson

Though life in this town was once a typical one for children of play and birthdays, the greyness of war settles over the community in which a library is destroyed, scattering pages, words and letters out and away. Life is now one lived in fear, of long lines for water, of cold rooms without electricity, and sparse food availability.

 

Then one day there are spoken words sprinkled in the air from the local square. Papa may call the librarian who sits there reading aloud foolish but they stop to listen.

From The Librarian's Stories by Lucy Falcone, illus. by Anna Wilson

Without much food and only the cold and grey as backdrop, the child joins others watching from their own windows and tucked into doorways and against walls, all listening.

Her words carry me back...

Briefly, the boy remembers his birthday, with balloons and kites and even birds flying.

From The Librarian's Stories by Lucy Falcone, illus. by Anna Wilson

But even as he and other children and adults listen, the reality of their lives, from the danger of standing in open windows, tanks in the streets, barbed wire and marching soldiers, encroaches back in. Still the librarian returns and reads aloud.

From The Librarian's Stories by Lucy Falcone, illus. by Anna Wilson

Eventually the soldiers are gone and the town repairs itself, including the child helping by reading aloud himself. But the best thing to help the goodness return is the rebuilding of that library.

From The Librarian's Stories by Lucy Falcone, illus. by Anna Wilson

War and conflict bring hardship and destruction but it is often seen in terms of shortages, deaths and injury, and the ruination of structures. But Lucy Falcone reminds us that the extinguishing of hope offered through literacy can be just as traumatic. The librarian knows the power of words to renew and enliven, and her perseverance and determination herald the new spirit for the town. By choosing to show us what is impactful for a child, Lucy Falcone gives a perspective that is elementary but profound by contrasting the darkness of conflict with the light of literacy.

 

New Zealand illustrator Anna Wilson similarly accentuates the anguish of a community in strife with the brightness of children and the luminosity of stories. In The Librarian's Stories, she gets the tone right for transitioning the story from one of the grim reality of war to one of hope and brightness, and her depiction of darkened letters fractured from the library's ruins and of blue or white words wafting from a reading are especially telling.

 

Most readers know the healing capacity of books and words but The Librarian's Stories reminds us that they can do much to restore communities from trauma as well.  Without words, without stories, without reading, we are all desolate.

I Didn't Stand Up

Written by Lucy Falcone

Illustrated by Jacqueline Hudon

Clockwise Press

978-1-98834-706-6

32 pp.

Ages 5+ (really all ages)

December 2018

In the aftermath of World War II, a Protestant pastor in Germany, Martin Niemöller, popularized a poem called "First They Came" about the abuses enacted by the Nazis upon different groups of people like socialists, trade unionists and Jewish people and how many would not stand up to protect the innocent. Using that text as a model, Lucy Falcone wrote I Didn't Stand Up about not standing up to school bullies who target those they see as different. It's a lesson in compassion and courage to defy oppression and persecution.

From I Didn't Stand Up by Lucy Falcone, illus. by Jacqueline Hudon

The book begins with

First they went after Jamal.
But I'm not black –
so I didn't stand up for him.

It continues with similar verses about Duncan who is targeted as a geek, Shyanne who is poor, Mariana who is an immigrant, Jason who is gay, Aisha who is Muslim and wears a headscarf, Liam who uses arm crutches, transgendered Alexis and overweight Marvin, And then they come after the narrator. Finally the child wants to be part of that larger group that might support them. Fortunately they do.

The text is minimal but says so much about how little it takes for a bully to select a victim and for bystanders to do nothing. Lucy Falcone wallops the reader with the intensity of each situation, seemingly innocuous but always devastating to the victim. The weighting is in Jacqueline Hudon's illustrations, depicting large-eyed victims of bullies who harm with words and actions.

From I Didn't Stand Up by Lucy Falcone, illus. by Jacqueline Hudon

The prevalence of yellow throughout the book can't help but be noted. Yellow, like most colours, has dual symbolism. It can represent enlightenment, as from the sun's light, as well as warmth. But, as with traffic lights, it is the colour of caution, and negatively it has also been used to signify cowardice and betrayal. I like to think that like the children in I Didn't Stand Up, the colour yellow evolves, becoming activated to do something positive.

From I Didn't Stand Up by Lucy Falcone, illus. by Jacqueline Hudon

Lucy Falcone is already known to middle-graders as L. M. Falcone with her award-winning fun and spooky reads like Walking with the Dead (Kids Can Press, 2005) and The Midnight Curse (Kids Can Press, 2010). So it's highly appropriate that Lucy Falcone has chosen a different moniker for her first picture book and one so impactful with its message of social justice and community. With I Didn't Stand Up, illustrated by Jacqueline Hudon who created the artwork for Bye, Bye, Butterflies (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2012) and Charlie's Dirt Day (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2015), Lucy Falcone has opened up a new window of writing for herself while shedding light on the damage of being a bystander to bullying and the need to step up and forward for all.