Acharming, true story about the encounter between the boy who would become chancellor at the University of California at Riverside and a librarian in Iowa. Tom†s Rivera, child of migrant laborers, picks crops in Iowa in the summer and Texas in the winter, traveling from place to place in a worn old car. When he is not helping in the fields, Tom†s likes to hear Papa Grande's stories, which he knows by heart. Papa Grande sends him to the library downtown for new stories, but Tom†s finds the building intimidating. The librarian welcomes him, inviting him in for a cool drink of water and a book. Tom†s reads until the library closes, and leaves with books checked out on the librarian's own card. For the rest of the summer, he shares books and stories with his family, and teaches the librarian some Spanish. At the end of the season, there are big hugs and a gift exchange: sweet bread from Tom†s's mother and a shiny new book from the librarianto keep. Col¢n's dreamy illustrations capture the brief friendship and its life-altering effects in soft earth tones, using round sculptured shapes that often depict the boy right in the middle of whatever story realm he's entered. (Picture book. 7-10)

-Kirkus Review

I really enjoyed reading this book. I was amazed by how much books can impact lives. It was such a good read. ( )

This children’s picture book tells a true story about the son of a migrant worker who learns to cope with moving a lot. The boy, Tomas, finds ways to amuse himself and finds a library with great books to read. The librarian helps Tomas look for good books to read and they become great friends. This is a great multicultural book with versions of the story in english and spanish for ELL learners ( )

This is a charming book about a young boy who moves with his family, who are migrant workers, and finds wonderful adventures in the books at the library. The librarian and Tomas` become friends and while she supplies new books for his imagination, he teaches her some Spanish. ( )

In my opinion this book was a great read. I was able to use the pictures to infer my own knowledge of what was going on in the story. This story was written in English but the setting was in Mexico and the family in the story spoke Spanish. Tomas was the main character and at first, he did not like to read. But one day he walked into the library and the librarian working there, “the library lady”, helped Tomas discover what types of books he likes to read. The author uses great descriptive language and lots of details to described the scenes from the books that Tomas was reading. This book gave the reader a good sense of the level of reading Tomas was on and how he used his imagination to place himself in the story. The characters were explained well and the pictures were helpful in identifying the characters. The story was realistic and was a great read about a young boy finding his passion for reading. ( )