224 minutes + 123 minutes=

347 minutes.

Just finished Jerry Spinelli's The Library Card. I take back what I said about character development. I just needed characters I could recognize. Miguel and Juanita struck me as a little generic, Tia Lola a little like a Dominican Mary Poppins. Maybe there are lots and lots of Tia Lola's out there that make other readers go: Aha! She had that effect in my life too. Me, not yet.

And then I open The Library Card and confront Mongoose and Weasel, two boys who both seem to be heading for juvenile delinquent- ism as they reach the point where adults don't have total control over them, but they seem to take this to mean that the entire world is at their mercy. Or at least Weasel does. I remember my brother at this stage, though he stuck with toilet paper and never progressed to shoplifting and graffiti.

Weasel's highest ambition is himself, name printed in huge letters on a factory wall, perpetually cruising in a red firebird. Mongoose is starting to see everything beyond himself- and is completely in awe. Mongoose tries to entice Weasel to this wonder. Weasel can only see that his friend is changing, leaving him behind.

And then: Bam!

I suppose I'm to be blamed for not reading the jacket flap. This isn't the first time it's happened to me. Publishers, perhaps you should consider a big warning on the cover of your books: "Warning. Anthology of short stories. Don't get too attached to the characters. You won't see them past page 52."

It's like when I listened to the Diary of Anne Frank, not realizing that the entire last cd was nothing but historical notes, thinking I still had another cd with her before the Nazis took her- how cheated I felt when another voice- not the narrator's- informed me at the beginning of CD twelve that Anne never wrote another entry!

Anyway...

Of course- the thread of the magical library card escalating the conflict or leading to its resolution, tended to by omniscient- seeming librarians, can't help but stroke my ego. Never mind that Mr. Spinelli seems unfamiliar with the ways of story time: has anyone had preschoolers that will sit through Madeleine and Babar in their entireties? Does anyone have volunteers doing story time?

While I definitely preferred "Mongoose" and "Sonseray," all four short stories are well-crafted and thought provoking, and I enjoyed them all thoroughly...I can't help but wonder how a middle schooler is bound to react to them...do they need a little more plot? Are they in a position to recognize the arrogance of pre-teenagerhood that sees a roof as a place from which to "check out your territory, to feel the size of yourself" rather than a prime position from which to view the stars? To recognize and even find comfort in Sonseray's lashing out, which is really a plea for a motherly slap across the face?

One dead mother, but everyone in all stories but Sonseray's still ostensibly with child's other natural parent.