Please Bury Me in the Library    by J. Patrick Lewis & Kyle M. Stone Order:  USA  Can Harcourt, 2005 (2005) Hardcover Read an Excerpt      Reviewed by J. A. Kaszuba Locke If the title of this book doesn't grab readers, the picture on the jacket guarantees it. Three winsome (albeit skinny) mice are perched on a dark library shelf, holding a mouse-sized candle, with an open book resting against an apple-core for support. Their big-eyed look says, 'oh, my, we've been caught!' But, what better place to be arrested than in a library? Kyle M. Stone's illustrious illustrations pair mice, men, women, and other beings with J. Patrick Lewis's fifteen poems in Please Bury Me In The Library. The title page shows a woman asleep in bed, covered with books (I can just imagine the dreams she must be having.) I like the divine poem on the front lapel that begins, 'Please bury me in the library / In the clean, well-lighted stacks / Of Novels, history, Poetry, / Right next to the Paperbacks'. Then there's 'Flea-ting Fame' which introduces, 'the famous Otto the Flea, / A fly-by-night, / Who dared to write / His Ottobiography?' Book don't just grow on shelves, they also grow on trees, as 'Necessary Gardens' testifies - 'Libraries / Are / Necessary / Gardens, / Unsurpassed / At / Growing / Excitement.' The testimony of 'Great, Good, Bad' is also worthy of note, 'A great book is a homing device / For navigating paradise. / A good book somehow makes you care / About the comfort of a chair. / A bad book owes to many trees / A forest of apologies.' I hope I've given you just enough to entice you to you forage through the rest of Lewis's poems that glorify reading, language, and especially that wonder-of-wonders - the library and its attendant librarians. 'Ab-so-lu-tas-ti-cal' Even the Acknowledgements are set to rhyme! If you're an avid reader like me (with book piles higher than I can count) you just have to have Please Bury Me in the Library amongst your stacks. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Kids books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews