Library Girl

When four librarian friends find a seemingly abandoned baby crying in the children's section of the library where they work, they immediately take charge of the wee infant until her mother comes for her. Except...no one ever comes for her. These women have each longed for a baby of their own, and now one has very unexpectedly found her way into their lives. So they decide to keep her. They name her Essie and create a room for her in the inner office, and they secretly raise her in the library. Since they fear that they would be charged with kidnapping if anyone discovered this deception, Essie spends all of her days at the library where she befriends regular patrons, and she learns many things from the books that surround her and from the wise women who raise her as their own.

But, by the time, she is 11, she begins to wonder about the world outside of the library, and her mothers start to worry that she needs to experience a little more of life. They decide to give her an allowance and to allow her to venture out on Saturday afternoons as far as the local mall. On one of her weekly outings, Essie meets G.E., a mischievous boy who looks suspiciously like her. As she tries to figure out her new friend, she begins to wonder about his life circumstances. And, as she pieces together the clues that she has about him, she comes to a remarkable conclusion: they must be twins, siblings who were separated at birth but have grown up leading almost parallel lives!

In true Polly Horvath fashion, this book is a unique and off beat story that explores the concepts of home and family in a highly original way. With quirky characters and a delightful premise, the story has a gentle, old-fashioned feel despite the fact that it is intended to be a more contemporary setting. Essie's idyllic childhood in which she grows up in a library with four loving mothers will capture the imagination of many young readers who will delight in the great lengths that the librarians must go to in order to keep this secret. Essie’s first forays into the outside world as she discovers the complex machinations of shopping and the joys of phosphates (as well as shops with 40 different flavours of ice cream!) are highly entertaining, and the unlikely friendships she forms in the library (with Babs and baby Trina and Oscar the elderly gentleman who falls asleep in his chair) are charming. Moreover, Essie's yearning for a bigger family, like the ones she reads about, and her secret wish for a sibling that she could share her worries with are also relatable. Readers never learn exactly why the four mothers weren't able to have children of their own, but their love for Essie never wavers, and, even when the truth of Essie's origins is revealed, there is never any question that these women are truly her mothers.
However, while the book's premise and Horvath's inimitable brand of whimsy are clever and engaging, the life lessons that Essie learns through the course of the story are somewhat perplexing and muddled. When she eventually discovers that the first real friend she has made outside of the library has betrayed her in a rather dramatic fashion, Essie is understandably hurt and angry. But that particular situation is never really resolved: G.E. never apologizes for how he hurt her but dismisses his actions as “a game”. She seems to grudgingly accept this but doesn't really forgive him for it or come to any sort of satisfactory acceptance of it within herself. Readers are left with the impression that, although she finally gets the sibling she had longed for, it ends up not being what she had hoped for. Similarly, readers will likely sympathize with Essie's outrage when her four mothers all eventually forgive the four men who had called off their engagements when they found out about Essie, and suddenly the four weddings are back on (In fact, the idea that all four mothers need to marry in order to have a happy ending is, in itself, disappointing). Nevertheless, the surprise revelation at the end about Essie's origins and the happily-ever-after conclusion and fairytale-like finale are exactly what would be expected for this story, and fans of Horvath's storytelling will still find much to love in this quaint and compelling tale.