By Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass
What if a small wooden box of books held the key to healing an entire town’s forgotten history?
Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead—two titans of middle-grade fiction—team up for The Lost Library, a clever mystery that doubles as a love letter to the people who protect our stories. This standalone novel, which has earned spots as a New York Times Bestseller and a Junior Library Guild Selection, follows eleven-year-old Evan and his best friend Rafe in the small town of Martinville. When a mysterious little free library appears overnight, guarded by a very large orange cat, the boys borrow two books that lead them toward a twenty-year-old secret involving a local fire. The story shifts perspectives between Evan, a ghost librarian named Al, and Mortimer the cat, creating a rich narrative about community memory. It is a gentle but gripping read that highlights the importance of asking the right questions even when the answers are buried deep in the past.
This book is a fantastic choice for any changemaker collection because it turns the act of reading into a catalyst for community growth. It aligns perfectly with SDG 4 (Quality Education) by showcasing how access to books can transform lives and heal old wounds. Evan serves as a great model for the IB Learner Profile trait of being an inquirer, as his persistence reveals truths that adults in the town have long ignored. Educators can use the boys’ journey to spark a hands-on classroom project where students build and curate their own mini-library for the school, writing recommendation notes to connect with their peers. This exercise turns the abstract idea of literacy into a tangible act of service. By the final page, students will see that taking action doesn’t always require a loud voice; sometimes, it starts with the quiet care of a librarian or a student willing to find the truth.
