Ipswich 100

Kyle Keeley is a huge fan of all games - board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most famous and creative gamemaker in the world, is the genius behind the town's new library that is as much a home for tech and trickery as it is for stories. Kyle wins a spot at a puzzle-packed lock-in on the library's opening night. But when morning comes, the doors stay locked. Kyle and the other kids must solve every clue and figure out every secret riddle to find the hidden escape route.

Nothing is as it seems at St Rita's, an exclusive girls' boarding school. The floor has holes from canonballs, the smell in the dining room is disgustingly foul, and the librarian doesn't really exist. But there is a librarian's assistant, Emily Lime. And she's really a crime-solving genius, who's looking for a new assistant of her own. And booksmart Daphne is just the girl for the job.

Packed with reviews, recommendations, and exclusive author interviews, this book will inspire young readers to discover books beyond the curriculum. From mystery to autobiography, the book is organised by genre, so you can jump to the section that interests you the most.

A fascinating journey through literature from the first hand-made books to Shakespeare, the Brontë sisters and the Brothers Grimm - and including cookery, science and music

Ever wanted to make your own picture book? Award-winning author Elys Dolan shows you how - with the help of her very enthusiastic assistant, Bert. From finding a brilliant idea to using colour and space to tell your story, this entertaining guide is packed with activities, tips and jokes. Find inspiration, grab your pens and pencils, and get making.

Rosa wants a book. But when she gets to the library, she finds it is closed. What could be the end of the story is just the beginning, as Rosa and her sister Maria try everything they can think of to bring their community together and fight to get back their precious library.

Forced to take shelter when their Syrian city is plagued with bombings, young Nour and her cousin begin to bravely build a secret underground library. Based on the author's own life experience and inspired by a true story, 'Nour's Secret Library' is about the power of books to heal, transport and create safe spaces during difficult times. Illustrations by Romanian artist Vali Mintzi superimpose the colourful world the children construct over black-and-white charcoal depictions of the battered city.

Jay wants to do things by himself on his birthday, but sharing with Nikhil turns out to be more fun. They all go to visit Grandad and Nana, but where is the story dragon? Then it's Pancake Day, the day when Amma makes yummy dosa, Indian pancakes. And last but not least, Nikhil and Jay help to lead a campaign to save their local library from closing.

When the library closes, and the last librarian has gone home to bed, the books come alive and tell stories of their adventures. But Dusty the book has never been borrowed and dreams of finding someone to share his story with.

The story of one well-worn, much-loved library book and all the children who have borrowed it. A vibrantly illustrated celebration of the magic of books, libraries and sharing, with fun rhyming text.

Little Bo Peep goes to the library to look for a book called How To Find Sheep. But there are other characters browsing the shelves too! Will she find those troublesome sheep before the Big Bad Wolf finds her? Step inside this amazing book, discover the true magic of reading and meet all your favourite nursery rhyme characters, including Little Boy Blue, Mother Goose, the Big Bad Wolf and the Queen of Hearts.

Luna loves library day: that's the day she spends with her dad. Exploring the shelves they find magic, mystery and even start to mend their own history. This is an inspiring story from one of the UK's greatest up-and-coming poets for children, captured in all its flights of fancy by illustrator Fiona Lumbers.

Olive is a shy girl who prefers reading about adventures to having them herself. But when a mysterious figure steals all of the books in town, Olive decides to set out straight into an adventure of her own. The thief, meanwhile, doesn't quite know what to do with the stories he's stolen. Olive must track down the thief and teach him the joys of reading - and sharing - stories.

It's another busy day at Stanley's Library! Stanley loads his van with books and sets off to the village green. Who will visit today and which books will they choose? Later, Stanley arrives back at the library just in time for a special event.

Little Red Reading Hood LOVES reading books and making up stories of her own. When she meets a cunning wolf while on her way to the library, he convinces her to stray from the path and read for a little while. But hasn't she read this in a story before?

Moose is the most fantastic storyteller. Every night after dinner, he sits with his family around the fire and tells an enchanting story. But, one evening, Moose can't think of a single tale he hasn't told before! What he needs is a book of stories. What they all need is a library. With help from the friendly librarian in town, Moose recycles an abandoned bus from the junkyard and makes a mobile library - a book bus! Now the whole neighbourhood can experience the magic of stories together.

In this inspiring, lyrical tale about the rewards of reading and sharing stories, a little girl sails her raft 'across a sea of words' to arrive at the house of a small boy. There she invites him to come away with her on an adventure. Through forests of fairy tales and across mountains of make-believe, the two travel together on a fantastical journey that unlocks the boy's imagination. Now a lifetime of magic lies ahead of him. But who will be next?

Leilong's friends are taking him to story time at the library. But it's difficult for a large brontosaurus without a library card to follow all the rules. Especially when Leilong gets caught up in the story and joins in. Is Leilong too big for the library, or is the library too small? This library-loving picture book reminds us how it feels to be transported by story. And what at first seems a problem for Leilong the dinosaur becomes a triumph.

Zach isn't convinced that books are for him - they're too long, they're boring and he would rather watch TV. But thanks to his friend Ro's stubborn efforts, Zach falls for books hook, line and sinker, and loses himself in a world of dinosaurs, princesses, pirates, football and rocketships - anything and everything the library has to offer. The benefits of reading for pleasure are well researched. As well as being linked to academic attainment, reading for pleasure can increase empathy, our understanding of our own identity, and improve mental health. These outcomes are most likely when reading takes place out of free choice. Through lively rhymes and dynamic illustrations, 'The Library Book' helps early readers understand the plethora of books available to them through their local library.

This is a moment-by-moment account of a very young child's visit to the local library. It presents a young child and her mum who read together becuase it's enjoyable.

There is no better place in the world than a library. Especially a library that kids create themselves! A million storeys high? Sure. Bathtubs? Absolutely. A full-service sundae bar? Of course. Everything is possible in this library - just like in books! Author Lindsay Leslie puts the reader in charge as the architect of a fantastical library in this imaginative picture book celebrating libraries and the joys of reading.

Books take us on journeys that we can all share and give us the power to go anywhere! This picture book will inspire a love of reading in any child! Celebrate all different types of books in a story that encourages children to read whatever, however and wherever they choose.

It's fancy dress day at the library! Which book characters will Spot, Helen and Tom dress up as? Join Spot and his friends as they explore all the different corners and books in the library.

Little Monster is reading a book and nothing can stop her when she's reading. But what will she do when she finishes her book?

After moving to Los Angeles, Susan Orlean became fascinated by a mysterious local crime that has gone unsolved since it was carried out on the morning of 29 April 1986: who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library, ultimately destroying more than 400,000 books, and perhaps even more perplexing, why?

With her characteristic humour, insight and compassion, Orlean uses this terrible event as a lens through which to tell the story of all libraries - their history, their meaning and their uncertain future as they adapt and redefine themselves in a digital world.

Filled with heart, passion and extraordinary characters, 'The Library Book' discusses the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives.

Why are books so very powerful? What do the books we've read over our lives - our own personal libraries - make of us? What does the unravelling of our tradition of public libraries, so hard-won but now in jeopardy, say about us?

The stories in Ali Smith's new collection are about what we do with books and what they do with us: how they travel with us; how they shock us, change us, challenge us, banish time while making us older, wiser and ageless all at once; how they remind us to pay attention to the world we make.

Library assistant June knows a lot about the regulars at Chalcot Library, yet they know very little about her. When her mum - the beloved local librarian - passed away eight years ago, June stepped into her shoes. But despite their shared love of books, shy June has never felt she can live up to the village's memory of her mum. Instead, she's retreated into herself and her memories, surviving on Chinese takeaways-for-one and rereading their favourite books at home.

When the library is threatened with closure, a ragtag band of eccentric locals establish the Friends of Chalcot Library campaign. There's gentlemanly pensioner Stanley, who visits the library for the computers and the crosswords, cantankerous Mrs B, who is yet to find a book she approves of, and teenager Chantal, who just wants a quiet place to study away from home. But can they compel reclusive June to join their cause?

London, 1944. Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. 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. Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café and a theatre offering shelter, solace and escape from the bombs that fall above.

Along with her glamorous best friend and library assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. But as the war drags on, the women's determination to remain strong in the face of adversity is tested to the limits when it seems it may come at the price of keeping those closest to them alive.

Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practise her other calling: as an unqualified shrink.

1940, London. When Cordelia accepts the post of head librarian in Canning Town library, her mother is more than a little disapproving. The East End has high levels of poverty and illiteracy, and her mother says it's no place for a woman of her status. But Cordelia is determined to make a difference in these times of strife, and along with her colleagues, Jane and Mavis, she begins to help the local community, making sure everyone knows what the library can offer them.

Against a background of war, rationing, and Mrs Montague-Smythe's attempts to derail her efforts, Cordelia has more than her work set out for her. And as the air raids increase in ever-frightening frequency, she will need to hold on to her indomitable spirit, or risk losing it all.

Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior centre that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering there.

Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed. Behind Bob Comet's straight man facade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses.

'What are you looking for?' asks Tokyo's most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. She is no ordinary librarian. Naturally, she has read every book on her shelf, but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of anyone who walks through her door. Sensing exactly what they're looking for in life, she provides just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.

Every borrower in her library is at a different crossroads, from the restless retail assistant - can she ever get out of a dead-end job? - to the juggling new mother who dreams of becoming a magazine editor, and the meticulous accountant who yearns to own an antique store. The surprise book Komachi lends to each will have transformative consequences.

Sylvia Blackwell, a young woman in her twenties, moves to East Mole, a quaint market town in middle England, to start a new job as a children's librarian. But the apparently pleasant town is not all it seems. Sylvia falls in love with an older man - but it's her connection to his precocious young daughter and her neighbours' son which will change her life and put them, the library and her job under threat.

How does the library alter the young children's lives and how do the children fare as a result of the books Sylvia introduces them to?

When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one. No wonder she only left the house for her weekly trip to the library or to spend her pocket money on amassing her own at home.

In this book, Lucy revisits her childhood reading with wit, love and gratitude. She relives our best-beloved books, their extraordinary creators, and looks at the thousand subtle ways they shape our lives. She also disinters a few forgotten treasures to inspire the next generation of bookworms and set them on their way.

Lucy brings the favourite characters of our collective childhoods back to life - prompting endless re-readings, rediscoveries, and, inevitably, fierce debate - and brilliantly uses them to tell her own story, that of a born, and unrepentant, bookworm.

Most of us give little thought to the back of the book - it's just where you go to look things up. But here, hiding in plain sight, is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. This is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past.

Every individual book has a history which can help us to understand what difference it may have made in the world. Within these pages you will find books damaged by bullets or graffiti, recovered from fire or water, or even disguised as completely different texts for protection in dangerous times.

Marks of ownership - be it a rich treasure binding or a humble family inscription - shine a light on social history and literacy, while student doodles from the sixteenth century and a variety of pithy annotations give us a sense of readers through the ages.

Ten years in the writing, this is a witty, impassioned tour of England's libraries by a writer and book-lover who made it his mission to to enrol at every library authority in England. As interested in the people he finds as he is in the buildings, this will appeal to anyone who has ever visited a public library.

Chris works as a librarian in a small-town library in the south of England. This is the story of the library, its staff, and the fascinating group of people who use the library on a regular basis.

The powerful, heart-breaking memoir of Dita Kraus, the real-life Librarian of Auschwitz. Born in Prague to a Jewish family in 1929, Dita Kraus has lived through the most turbulent decades of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Here, Dita writes with startling clarity on the horrors and joys of a life delayed by the Holocaust.

From her earliest memories and childhood friendships in Prague before the war, to the Nazi-occupation that saw her and her family sent to the Jewish ghetto at Terezín, to the unimaginable fear and bravery of her imprisonment in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and life after liberation. Dita writes unflinchingly about the harsh conditions of the camps and her role as librarian of the precious books that her fellow prisoners managed to smuggle past the guards. But she also looks beyond the Holocaust - to the life she rebuilt after the war.

Allie Morgan is a woman in crisis. Having recently dropped out of her dream career due to mental illness, she's decided that life is no longer worth living and is set to end it when she receives a phone call from the local library, offering her a job. There and then she decides to postpone suicide and give the role a try.

What Allie doesn't expect is for a simple part-time job to become a passionate battle for survival, both her own and for the library. As the year unfolds, she sees an attempted murder, becomes a target for a drugs gang and finds herself the last hope for people in desperate poverty. Hers is the story of how one person can go from rock bottom to becoming a crucial part of her local community.

Recounted with immense wry humour and disarming charm, 'The Librarian' is an eye-opening account of a strange but wonderful community hub and a library that changed a life.

Chairman Mao was a librarian. Stalin was a published poet. Evelyn Waugh served as a commando - before leaving to write Brideshead Revisited. Since the advent of modern warfare, books have all too often found themselves on the frontline.

In 'The Book at War', acclaimed historian Andrew Pettegree traces the surprising ways in which written culture - from travel guides and scientific papers to Biggles and Anne Frank - has shaped, and been shaped, by the conflicts of the modern age. From the American Civil War to the invasion of Ukraine, books, authors, and readers have gone to war - and in the process become both deadly weapons and our most persuasive arguments for peace.

Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident.

Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.

How do you create an active reader? Why is reading good for creativity? Why is it vital for teaching the next generation resilience and positive mental health?

In the digital age of never-ending screen time you could argue that the power of books has diminished. But while screens have changed the act of reading, Alex Johnson believes reading is even more important, and that people value books more than ever.

This is visible in the sales of printed special editions, the revival in reading aloud, the increased interest in poetry anthologies and the rescuing of 'lost words' from obscurity.