Library Dreams (Luna’s World #1) (Hayley Gannon, illus Michelle Conn, Affirm)

Library Dreams is the first book in Hayley Gannon’s debut junior fiction series, Luna’s World. It centres around 10-year-old Luna and her main goal to become the library monitor for her grade. However, she has stiff competition from her classmate and frenemy, Jade Jones. Ms Sunny, the librarian at school who ‘doesn’t shoosh’, wears swishy skirts and dangly earrings, and remembers everyone’s name, gives Luna and Jade the same library-based challenge. Whoever succeeds gets the coveted role of library monitor. Luna is desperate to win and expresses these feelings in the diary her mum gave her to help her focus. The diary format of Library Dreams makes it accessible for readers aged 6–9, offering a perfect next step for fans of Meredith Costain’s Ella Diaries series. Michelle Conn’s cute illustrations break up the text well and include helpful information in the form of ‘quick tips’, including terminology found within libraries. This charming book celebrates libraries and the myriad benefits they offer. Luna’s love for the library is unmistakable (book sniffing included!), mainly because it provides her with a rare haven from the continuous assessment she feels she faces elsewhere. At its core, Library Dreams is about teamwork, compromise and friendship — themes that tweens can relate to and get caught up in. It’s a heartwarming read that will resonate with little library lovers everywhere.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Katie Haydon is a library officer in Geelong, a self-confessed book sniffer and a former assistant editor of Books+Publishing. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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