I've had this hardcover on my keeper shelves for some years now, and I think it's time it went traveling. I also wanted to choose a special book for my 10,000th BC-registered book, and as this one features books and cats and an eccentric, book-loving heroine, I decided to give it the honor! (The fact that it describes someone awfully similar to me didn't hurt...)

"Elizabeth Brown
Entered the world
Dropping straight down from the sky.
Elizabeth Brown
Entered the world
Skinny, nearsighted, and shy.
She didn't like to play with dolls,
She didn't like to skate.
She learned to read quite early
And at an incredible rate."

There are scenes of her reading under the covers late at night by flashlight, preferring books to dating or going to parties, haunting bookstores, and - of course - collecting shelves and stacks of books. (She does differ from me in a few ways; I didn't play librarian as a kid, and I've been a bit better organized than she seems to be. But that love of books is very familiar.)

The illustrations are charming, showing her happily diving into yet another book while enjoying tea and cookies - and cats. [The final illustration shows a ginger tabby lying happily across an open book. My cats love to "help" with my reading too...]

Eventually her collection fills every available inch of her house, and "she had to face the awful fact she could not have one more". But she has a clever solution for the problem, and the story closes with Elizabeth and a friend settling in to a "ripe old age", where "they walked to the library day after day, and turned page... after page... after page."

I left this book in the Little Free Library at around noon; hope the finder enjoys it!

Update, 10/3/2016: Just wanted to add a big "thank you" to the finder for journaling the book; it's lovely to know where it's been, and that it is being enjoyed!

I picked this book up from the free library on the greenway in Boston. I frequent this library - I leave more books than I take. I'm an avid reader and live in a small north end apt so can't hold onto the books we get from many sources. I love children's books -I love this one in particular. Great illustrations. Great story that I relate to. Congrats on sending 10,000(???) books out into the world for others to enjoy. And thank you. Sorry that I love this book so much that we've held onto it - for now. Someday we'll set it free. In the meantime, it's perfect for my learning to read 1st grader.