The Keeper of the Stories
by Caroline Kusin Pritchard
Illustrated by Selina Alko
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
an imprint Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
2025
40 pages
ISBN: 9781665914970
Illustrations by Selina Alko capture the tragedy of a fire that consumed the Theological Seminary Library in 1966. For 130 years, the library was a work and study place which housed 200,000 books, newspapers and magazines, some dating back as far as the Middle Ages. Although thirty-five fire houses responded, the fire lasted nine hours and destroyed 70,000 books, but the neighborhood came together immediately to save the stories,
In a project known as "Operation Booklift," people, both Jewish and non-Jewish, it did not matter, volunteered to help with the damaged books, forming a human chain to pass books down the line into cartons and later onto carts. The people knew the stories and the words were worth saving for everyone. What a testament to humanity!
The water from the fire hoses had water logged most books, but thousands of hands dried book pages with paper towels and they even freeze dried books to save them.
Prithcard's prose hits at the heart with repeated lines, almost like a chorus, "Keep our stories alive" which gives the story rhythm. It MUST be read aloud to hear the beauty of the story, Exemplary design throughout the book changes the text placing in every two-page spread using the entire page drawing interest.
Photos and a page detailing the event follow along with an author's note and a list of sources. There is even a link to a full interview with the author and the library's head librarian of twenty years.
The Keeper of the Stories will be front and center come awards season. A must have for every collection. If your library is well-funded, you'll want to put one copy in history and another in picture books.
Grades 1-4. This would be an excellent book to teach about non-fiction versus fiction.
The story opens with, "A library is a keeper of stories. A keeper of memories. A keeper of hope," which is as true today as it was in 1966.
