The Little Wartime Library: A gripping, heart-wrenching WW2 page-turner based on real events

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There’s a very interesting author’s note in the book that mentions librarians helping the mentally disabled and look at how they helped me! Visiting factories and delivering books to shift workers, holding a nightly story time for the children, starting a boozy book club for their mothers, and Clara sends a letter to Canada asking for donations of children’s classic books.

Overall: happily and highly recommend this gripping and engaging novel for any reader who enjoys historical fiction and/or novels that show a deep appreciation for librarians and literature. The Blitz revealed the need to have equal access to reading material and the stigma of reading for relaxation lifted. In addition to living in constant threat of bombing, the librarians have to deal with their patrons' controlling, abusive husbands; administrators bent on censorship; unsupervised children; and safety concerns, such as a rapist roaming the streets. Both Clara and Ruby gain so much confidence over the course of the book, which is interesting because Ruby was already very unique but her story arc allowed for so much growth. This is a story about love, loss, forgiveness, acceptance, sacrifice, the importance of the human bond, having faith in oneself, finding your place and purpose in life.The library itself is literally underground, in an abandoned train tunnel turned bomb shelter in London. Ably assisted by her best friend, irrepressible Ruby, both set aside their own heartache to keep the community library seventy-eight feet underground operating whilst the bombing continues. While she refused for them to visit her injured fiancé and they were expecting to overcome his injuries she did not apply the same for their own biological father. There was some great supporting characters too and through them the reader learns more about the war and social attitudes towards women at the time, some of which made my blood boil.

Can you imagine growing up in a tube station, your childhood unfolding next to the tracks, all your rites of passage taking place in the booking hall or along the tunnels? However, the stress of the war and the difficult conditions that these trying times bring challenge the hardworking librarians of the underground library. One of the things that bothered me was that one of the characters suffered from panic attacks like I do yet somehow finding a love interest seems to have helped her and I can tell you that is very unrealistic. Most of the men in this story have a Gaston-like attitude that women shouldn't be reading books and getting ideas.Many thanks to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this exceptional novel. When you close a library, bad things start to happen in the neighbourhood where the library used to be. While I enjoyed the story of Clara and Ruby -- our little library protectors and guardians, I must say that the notes at the end of the book really elevated the experience for me. While the world remains at war, in East London Clara has created the country's only underground library, built over the tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station.

A library is the only place you can go—from cradle to grave—that is free, safe, democratic and no one will try to flog you anything. I appreciated that the author set the story in the later stages of the war (1944-45), so that we could see the cumulative strains and weariness from coping and striving to 'carry on'. A split character narration forms the basis of this novel’s engrossing format, which is shared over librarians Clara and Ruby.I tried to major in the Library Media Specialist program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a major in the program because I was disabled and I want to give a giant shout out to Ann Zarrinia and Eileen Shroeder who ran the department together and the head librarian of the Palmyra Public Library whose name I have forgotten during 2010 which refused to let me complete my internship for not allowing me to complete my major. Clara’s a trained librarian and Ruby isn't your typical assistant, between them they make a great team and devise ingenious ways of lending out as many books as they can. I was totally absorbed in this book- showing the power books have , allowing people to escape nightmare situations creating a magical oasis.